RWBY Fan Fiction: Team DRKE
by Simaniac45
Summary: The Vytal Festival is coming up, and it just so happens that Sun wasn't the only kid from Vacuo who made friends with team RWBY. Team DRKE (Drake) are a team of third-years who just happen to match up against Team RWBY in some practice matches. After they soundly trump Team RWBY, Team DRKE decides to train their new friends, and a series of misadventures ensues.
1. Chapter 1: Team DRKE

-Hey Guys! This Fanfiction is created by me! My friends and I were talking about how much we would love to be a team in RWBY, and what our semblances and weapons are, so I thought eh, might as well make a Fanfiction out of it. It's kind of scrappily written towards the beginning, but trust me, it gets TONS better fast. Hopefully soon I can make a doujinshi manga out of it, so I'll include a note sometime telling you guys when and where I'll release that. Have fun, and enjoy!

-Simon Lewis (AKA Dusty Revick)-

 **Chapter 1: Team DRKE**

"The Vytal Festival!" cried Weiss, joyously. "Oh, this is absolutely wonderful."

Yes, yes, we've all seen where this conversation goes, so I'll get to the point. While team Rwby headed to the docks to "survey" the new arrivals from Vacuo, A few teams had already gotten off the boat. One of those teams was team DRKE (Drake), a third-year team that was lead by Dusty Revick.

Dusty is tall, and as his name suggests, he has a rather dusty look about him. Not that he actually was, he just seemed like that kind of person. He wore his usual combat/travel outfit, which includes a brown leather coat, a fedora, hiking boots, and a white collared shirt underneath. He is the essence of western cowboys. His light brown hair is almost shoulder length, and it would be if it weren't curled at the ends. Every now and then, his coat would flap and you could see the handles of some type of pistols sticking out.

Roy Enkon is about as tall as dusty, but not quite. He has a pale green jacket with a black undershirt beneath, and black, cylindrical gadgets on his arms that could be a gauntlet-type weapon cut off his sleeves. He wears a beanie that covers short, black dreadlocks, and you can see a sheet of folded metal beneath the beanie's brow.

Kevin "Supernova" Vitta is a bit shorter than Roy, but a bit bulkier. He has a fur-lined hoodie with a heavy chestplate covering the front, and a very large flamethrower sits on his back. He has a sort of angry but happy look on his face, if that's even possible, and short, almost blond hair tops his head.

Eddie Revan is middle-sized and muscular, with shoulder length black hair and a strong facial build. He wears light armor, the kind that's easy to move around in, and you can see a longsword strapped to his back. You could say his gear was similar to Jaune Arc's, but he has more armor, and no shield. He has an almost knightly look about him.

Team DRKE had just disembarked, and was heading to the beacon guest dorms, when a commotion was heard back at the boat.

"What was that?" asked Roy.

"Let me take a look." Said Dusty, with a hint of western accent.

Dusty, being an excellent gunslinger, had good eyesight, and could see clearly that a golden-haired monkey Faunus was sitting on top of a lightpost, throwing bananas at some guards. The Faunus jumped away, and with the guards, a group of girls were chasing after him.

"Looks like Sun." Said Dusty, after a minute or so.

"Did he get caught?" asked Eddie, with a hint of concern in his voice. Back on the boat, they had found the Faunus, who introduced himself as Sun Wukong. He seemed like a fun guy to be around, and they had taken a liking to him.

"I dunno. They chased him into the city. Here's hoping they didn't get him." Dusty replied.

A heavy silence fell over them, and they walked on in quiet the rest of the way to the dorms.

…

It was a week later, after team Rwby had worked with Sun Wukong and Penny Polendina to stop the white fang. The Vytal Festival Tournament was drawing close, and "practice matches" of sorts were starting. To get used to fighting people, some inexperienced first years were daring enough to challenge third-years, and team Rwby was one of those teams.

"Are you sure this is okay?" asked Roy. "Beating up first-years like this?"

"Well, they literally asked for it," answered Kevin. "I don't know about you guys, but I haven't busted a skull in a while. I won't be holding back. "

"Lay off, man." Said Dusty. "They're first years. Leave their skulls alone. "

Outside, Team Rwby was already set to attack. They were in a miniature arena that had been set up by the new Atlesian Paladins. No one had seen the Tournament Arena yet, but according to Glenda, this arena was only a fourth of the size.

"Dooohh, this is so exciting! What kind of team are we fighting?!" squealed Ruby.

"I dunno," replied Yang. "They're from Vacuo, so…"

Yang trailed off as all of them thought of Sun. It wasn't the most encouraging of thoughts. Ruby's excitement seemed to vanish in an instant.

"Sorry to keep y'all waiting!" yelled a voice from the other side of the ring. Team Rwby looked up, and saw a strange mix of people walking towards them. The cowboy was understandable (Vacuo is a desert), but there was what looked like a knight, and a tank with a flamethrower. They didn't know about the last one.

"We all ready?" asked the cowboy.

"Umm, sure." replied Ruby.

And with that, Glenda called for the match to begin.

Instantly, Ruby's eyesight went out the window, and before she could even react, something hit her from behind, and she was knocked out.

Weiss was in confusion, and panicking; she desperately tried to clean the sand out of her eyes. When she could see again, the knight was right in front of her, and she just managed to block a downward strike from his longsword. She jumped away with a glyph, and managed to send a couple of ice shards at the knight before something hit her in the stomach. Before she blacked out, she could see a rifle in the knight's hands.

Blake had seen the sandstorm coming, and shielded her eyes. She realized that there was a mini forest behind her, and ran for the trees. She grappled up the closest tree with Gambol Shroud, and tried to get a grip on the situation. It was not a good one. Ruby was down (the Tank was standing over her with a tetsubo), and Weiss was fighting the knight- nevermind. Weiss is down- Yang was in a fistfight with the cowboy… where was the other guy with the beanie? _Thwack._ An arrow had appeared next to her head. Surprised, Blake jumped the opposite direction- and was knocked out from behind. Where had he come from? He just seemed to appear right behind her. These questions formed in her mind as she fell to the ground.

Yang was, surprisingly, having a tough time beating the cowboy in close combat. He hadn't even thrown a punch yet. He weaved, blocked, and dodged. Yang was running out of breath, and she could tell her punches were slowing. The cowboy had knuckle-dusters on, but she didn't know where they came from. Angry, yang threw a right hook. That was her fatal mistake. He caught the punch early in its arc, and with the other hand threw an excessive jab. It connected cleanly, and Yang went down without getting one punch in.

"That's the match!" called Glenda. "Team DRKE wins!"

…

End of

Chapter 1.


	2. Chapter 2: Relations

**Chapter 2: Relations**

Ruby woke up with the headache of a lifetime. Her sight was blurry, and when it cleared up, she saw the guy with the flamethrower sitting in front of her.

"Your skull isn't broken, is it?" he asked.

Ruby looked around, and saw the rest of her teammates on the ground, each with another person sitting with them, waiting for them to wake up.

"What happened?" asked Ruby, frightened.

"Well, you and your team challenged us to a fight. Sorry in advance for anything broken." The tank replied. "I'm Kevin, by the way."

"Ruby."

"Oh, the blond one's waking up."

He was right. Ruby staggered over to Yang (her eyesight was still a bit blurry), to find the cowboy complimenting her on recovering so fast.

"-Didn't expect you to wake up so fast. Good job." He was saying.

Yang was rubbing her temple, and moaning in pain. Nothing was there, but from the way Yang was acting, you'd expect a bruise or a concussion. _What happened?_ Thought Ruby. She then realized that her other teammates had similar symptoms. Weiss was clutching her stomach, and Blake was rubbing her back. The one with the beanie was swiftly administering pills of some sort.

Everyone was sent to the infirmary. Miraculously, no one had any injuries, and their auras weren't even depleted, but everyone was still in pain. It was an hour or so before Team DRKE came in and said hello.

"Are the painkillers I gave you working?" asked the one with the green jacket.

Everyone slowly shook heads, and green looked sort of angry with his team.

"Sorry for not introducing ourselves before the fight. I'm Dusty." Said the cowboy.

"Yes, you are." Said Yang jokingly.

"No, I mean my name's Dusty. Dusty Revick." Said Dusty, his face turning slightly red.

The tank introduced himself as Kevin "Supernova" Vitta, the one with the beanie as Roy Enkon, and the knight as Eddie Revan. They then explained what happened.

"I recommend you pay attention, because this could be a winning strategy for you in the future." And with that, Dusty rattled off the events of the battle.

He explained that his semblance was to make dust (The regular kind of dust) out of the small dirt particles floating in the air. He can make clouds of dust and hurl them at any enemy. _So that's where the sandstorm came from._ Thought Blake. He then explained that the rest of the team's job was to get at least two people out, so the rest would me manageable when the dust cleared. Kevin smashed Ruby over the head, and knocked her out. When Eddie went for Weiss, she had reacted, and actually got a hit in (Even though she didn't see, one of the ice shards had hit him). He then showed his weapon: Dustcaliber. It was a longsword that turned into a semi-automatic carbine rifle. _Ahh, so that's what hit me._ Thought Weiss. Roy had chased Blake into the forest; she had seen the sandstorm coming. Roy pulled a curved hunting knife from his Gauntlet, and the blade split in two, then extended, pulling a string out, and forming a bow. "I shot at you, you jumped, and I got you. Simple." Said Roy.

"But how did you? You just… appeared." Said Blake

"Like this?" Said Roy's voice from behind her.

Blake shrieked and jumped, and everyone laughed. Roy explained that it was his semblance to appear behind people. However, it tired him out fairly quickly, and they had to be moderately close.

"But how did you beat me?" asked Yang, angrily. "I'm the top of my class in fist fighting. "

"That's true, you really kept me on my toes." Replied Dusty. "But the problem is that you're all attack; no defense or evasion. You're completely forgetting to protect yourself."

Yang went silent. "So you're saying that you beat me with pure skill?" she asked.

"Sorry to say so, but yes." Said Dusty.

The rest of team Rwby was shocked. Yang was beaten?

"But I can tell that if you picked up your guard a bit, you could easily trump me." Said Dusty "I was barely able do dodge any of those punches, and the shotgun blasts grazed me several times. Your fatal mistake was the right hook."

Dusty explained that hook punches, coming from the side, were easily blockable because they were so wild. If you can use one hand to catch it early in its arc, the other is free to do anything it wants. On top of that, more often than not, you put your entire body into the swing, and you don't have any time to recover, so you basically leave yourself open.

"Unless your enemy is completely off-balance, hooks are out of the question." Finished Dusty.

Team RWBY stared at Dusty. It was impressive (To say the least) that he knew so much about one simple movement.

"What needs to happen is that you need to chill a bit, and take some time to figure out your opponent. If you just go all out right off the bat, you leave tons of openings." Said Dusty.

"Ok, ok, ok, stop." Said Yang, quite suddenly. "Why are you giving me all this advice? We're enemies. We literally just fought."

"Hey, We're all hunters here. No reason to turn down ways to beat some Grimm up." Countered Dusty. "We're not enemies. Plus, as a senior student, it's my job to help first-years."

"Well, no one asked you to." Yang half-shouted, her purple eyes turning red.

"Even so, I just did." Dusty's voice was gaining a heavy country accent, hinting that he was getting angry. "You could thank me. Or should I knock the advice I gave you from your memory?"

The room went silent. Everyone could tell there was some tension between Yang and Dusty. Dusty was slowly losing his cool, which was something that almost never happened, and Yang's short temper was blatantly obvious.

"HEYYYY, why don't you guys come over?" yelled Ruby, trying to break the mood. "We can have Ren cook us dinner!"

"I think no-" Said Dusty.

"THAT would be great, Ruby!" Eddie said, interrupting Dusty.

With Dusty and Yang shouting protest, it was decided that teams RWBY, JNPR, and DRKE would eat together that evening.

…

End of

Chapter 2


	3. Chapter 3: Meals With Friends

**Chapter 3: Meals With "Friends"**

Ren and Dusty were in the cafeteria's kitchen, busily working on something Dusty had suggested; something called "Chicken fried steak bites with country gravy and peekan pie." In the meantime, Ruby, Weiss, Blake, Yang, Jaune, Nora, Pyrrha, Roy, Kevin, and Eddie were seated at one of the cafeteria tables. Roy and Blake had hit off right away, and were talking by themselves. Ruby, Yang, and Kevin were listening to Nora, who was standing on the table, shouting one of her battle stories. Eddie was telling Jaune and Pyrrha about the real Dustcaliber.

"Mine isn't the real one, you see. A great warrior used the real one before the kingdoms were established. It could punch through concrete with one bullet, and cut through virtually anything. It was the first transforming weapon, and what all other weapons are designed after."

"Wow," said Jaune, completely enraptured.

Pyrrha, however, was skeptical. "I'm not sure about that. How exactly could one bullet punch through something so hard?"

"It was a special type of dust bullet." Eddie replied. "Ethereal dust. Only the best purifiers can make it. It was the combination of all the base element dust types melded together."

"Wow!" said Jaune. "Can you get the stuff anywhere in Vale? "

"You can, but it costs 1200 lien for one gram of it, and full on bullets cost almost 5,000 per bullet."

"And there I was, alone in the middle on the Forest of Forever Fall, Surrounded by the coils of a King Taijitu, with nowhere left to run! With no choice, I fought, and came out victorious!"

Jaune, Pyrrha, and Eddie looked over at Nora, who was so excited she was swinging her hammer around, acting out the killing of the King Taijitu.

"Is she… always this… verbose?" asked Eddie.

"You have no idea." Said Jaune, shaking his head.

"So why did you talk to me, of all people?" Asked Blake.

"You reminded me of someone I know back home." Replied Roy. "She's quiet, and mysterious. On top of that, she always gives off this scary vibe, like she would kill you if you talked to her, and if you did, she would stare daggers at you."

Blake gave Roy a pretty nasty look when he said that.

"Sorta like that. But when I talked to her, she was actually really nice, and she made a good friend. I figured I would try the same with you."

"Oh. Well, that's… nice of you, I guess." Said Blake, slightly surprised.

And such went the conversations, until Dusty yelled, "Come and get it, y'all!" from the kitchen. Team DRKE immediately stood up, and started walking to the kitchen. The rest were confused, and hung back, unsure of what to do. Soon, team DRKE came back with Ren, arms full of plates and cups. They had something that looked delicious, but they didn't come back with extras for the rest.

"Ain't y'all gonna get some?" asked Dusty.

They suddenly understood. They had to serve themselves.

"Sorry, we're just used to having the food on the tables." Apologized Pyrrha.

"No problem. Now y'all go get some." Said Dusty.

"You really should." said Ren, eating much faster than usual. "It's really good."

Teams JNPR and RWBY walked to the kitchen and found the food waiting. It smelled good, whatever it was, and there was pie waiting for dessert. They each served themselves some (Nora got tons), and headed back to the table. They were hesitant, but when they tried it, they realized that Ren was right, and the food was wonderful. You would bite into the fried outside and find a tender, juicy steak in the middle, all of it with a small hint of chicken mixed in. and if you added gravy, it was simply exquisite.

After a while, Dusty brought the pie in and said, "I hope y'all have room for Peekan pie."

"You keep saying that. Pee-kan. What's a Pee-kan?" asked Ruby.

"It's how southern people say the word pecan, you dunce!" Scolded Weiss.

"Oh."

The pecan pie was just as delicious. It was crunchy but syrupy at the same time, and the slightly bitter pecans blended perfectly with the sweet syrup. The second Nora took a bite, she dove for the rest of the pie, and she had to be physically held back by Jaune, Ren, and Pyrrha together. All in all, it was a wonderful meal, and after about thirty minutes, everyone was thoroughly stuffed.

"Compliments to the chef." Said Yang.

"Why, thank you." Said Dusty, rather teasingly.

Yang, surprised, spit out the bite she was chewing, and spluttered a bit.

"YOU cooked this?!" she asked, still choking a bit.

"Well, no shit, Sherlock. I recommended the recipe."

This was a first for everyone. Yang was being thoroughly trumped, in both combat, and jokes. Everyone was laughing, and that made it worse for her.

"I thought cooks had to be sanitary, Mr. Dusty." Yang countered.

"Only city folk would say something like that," said Dusty, his head shaking in pity. "It would still be edible if there was dirt on it. It wouldn't be if it was singed, hothead."

Everyone laughed again, but nobody saw what happened after that, only a blur of movement. Dusty had Yang in an armlock of sorts, with his gun pointing into her stomach.

"See what I mean?" said Dusty.

In an instant, team RWBY and JNPR's guns were all pointed at Dusty, and in the next, team DRKE's guns were pointed back. Yang was suddenly on the ground, released by Dusty.

"What are you doing?!" Demanded Ruby.

"Hey, now. I haven't done anything." Answered Dusty, hands in the air.

"Bullshit!" Said Jaune.

Dusty made no reply. For a minute, they all stood there, Mexican standoff-style, until the cafeteria door opened with a bang, and everyone's weapons were thrown to the floor. It was Glenda, and she was angry.

"Would someone care to explain why you are all pointing guns at each other?" she seethed.

"Of course, Professor." Said Dusty. "Yang here was making a joke, so I retorted, and out of the blue sky above, she threw a punch at me. So I locked her. Seems these people here misinterpreted it as me trying to attack Yang."

"Is this true, Miss Xiao Long?" Glenda asked Yang, who was still on the floor.

After a short pause, Yang slowly nodded.

"Very well, then. I have no choice but to suspend you for starting fights. You may come back-"

"Now hold on a second, Miss Goodwitch. I know she attacked me, but I have no intention of getting her in trouble." Said Dusty. "I'll forgive her if she agrees to let me teach her a thing or two about fistfighting. If she does, will you lift the suspension?"

Glenda thought for a while. "If you have no grudge, then I see no reason to deny these conditions."

Dusty walked over to Yang, and kneeled down to where she was sitting.

"You heard the lady. So will you let me teach you, Blondie? Trust me, you'll need it."

Yang was at a loss for words, but after a while, she managed to nod.

"Very well." Said Goodwitch. "I'll be off, then."

Glenda turned on her heel, and just as she was about to get through the door, she floated a steak bite over to her. Taking a bite, she said, "Compliments to the chef," and closed the door.

…

End of

Chapter 3


	4. Chapter 4: Lessons

**Chapter 4: Lessons**

Yang was absolutely seething when she got back to the dorm rooms, and her teammates wisely stayed out of her way.

"I'm going down to the training room." That was the code phrase for "I'm going to blow off some steam."

And so Yang disappeared, and the rest of the team was left to ponder what would happen at Yang's training session, scheduled for tomorrow. Perhaps she would actually try to learn? Or maybe she would (like always) use it as an opportunity to try- the keyword being try- to beat Dusty's ass. No matter what happened, it promised to be an interesting afternoon, so teams RWBY, JNPR, and DRKE went to watch.

Yang was (Surprisingly) the first to arrive at the now empty auditorium. She found Dusty sitting on the stage, smoking a Marlboro. Surprised, she asked how old he was.

"21, lil' miss blondie." He replied, and then noticed her look. "You look surprised."

"You're 21? I was expecting third-years to be a little younger."

"Oh, trust me, you won't pass your second year on your first try. The only ones who did are a select few combat geniuses, along with a few braincases who got by on their grades." He looked like he had remembered something. "One of them was a drunken, disrespectful fella by the name of Qrow Brawnen. "

"That's my uncle!" she shouted out of surprise.

Dusty stared at her, an eyebrow raised. "Really now?"

"Yeah."

"Black, spiked hair, big sword that turns into a scythe, no respect for anyone?"

"Yep."

"Strange. You look nothing alike… Well, no sense'n mulling over that issue now. Let's get started."

He jumped down from the stage and stubbed his cigarette.

"Now, first things first, I want you to tell me everything about your combat style, so I can figure out an easier way to train you. And don't give me some half-assed explanation. I wanna know who you were taught by, if you're style has a name, your Semblance, Weapons specs, everything. Now spill."

Yang, temporarily surprised, started a long, in-depth breakdown of her complete combat loadout. She explained that her father, Taiyang, taught her, and the style he used had no name. She explained her semblance (With some mildly impressed looks from Dusty), and before she could give him the lowdown on her weapon he stopped her. He asked if she would just let him see for himself. She let Dusty (quite hesitantly) give Ember Celica a good looking-over. He tried them on, and folding them out, took a few shots at some dummied he had set up.

"Huh. These're heavier than I woulda thought."

And then, he asked for, and she let him have (even more hesitantly) a look at her arms. He got uncomfortably close, rubbing her arms all the way down to her fingers, and then asked her to flex as hard as she could. She did, and squeezing her bicep, he pondered a bit. She couldn't help but notice that he reeked of smoke and kitchen grease.

Yang could feel her face burning, and not in the usual way with actual fire. Someone 5 years older than her was practically feeling her up, and she was letting him. She thought she would die of embarrassment if one of her teammates saw her like this. To add to it, it seemed that Dusty had noticed her face growing red. He was smirking evilly, and making his touch a hint more sensual.

"Haven't had many full-body checkups before, have we?" he teased.

No reply.

Yang was biting into her scarf, and it was at the exact moment Dusty moved to check her leg strength when a voice from across the room rang out.

"Get your dirty hands off my big sister!" it said.

Yang, at that moment, knew… she had fucked up. Of course her teammates were coming to watch. Yang thought dying would be batter than being seen like this, especially by her little sister. She looked over and saw rose petals swirling as Ruby started to use her semblance, but Roy appeared behind her and held her back with a full nelson.

"Easy there, little red." Said Roy.

Weiss, Blake, and team JNPR chose that exact moment to walk in, saw Dusty and Yang, and Roy holding Ruby in a full nelson, and got the wrong idea. In an instant, the guns were pointed again, Yang and Ruby were on the ground again, and a few minutes later, Glenda was seething again, this time accompanied by Ozpin.

Dusty explained, and Ozpin actually chuckled a bit, followed by Glenda saying that this is the last time before she suspends Yang and sends Dusty back to Vacuo. After it was over, Dusty went back to examining Yang like nothing had happened, much to the disdain of the onlookers (and especially Yang). After maybe 5 minutes, Dusty declared her physiology to be solid, and decided to move on to the next phase of the training. He wisely waited until everyone was seated before doing so, though.

"Now, we're going to see just how much you can dish out without your gauntlets." He said. "However, I won't be holding back, so you give me everything you can."

Yang was immediately lost in the thought of her beating Dusty to a pulp for what he had done. Dooohh, she couldn't wait to mess up that dusty face of his.

Yang hastily agreed, and they spaced each other a bit before calling a referee in for the match. Once he arrived, the match began. Immediately, Yang went in headfirst, so angry she activated her semblance. Flaming, and much faster than before, she had Dusty on the ropes quickly, and he could only dodge. Jab, uppercut, roundhouse kick followed with a momentum-assisted right hook, left hook, front kick, jab, it went on for almost ten minutes before Yang started to slow down. Now Dusty was blocking, and actually throwing punches. However, Yang was still fast enough to dodge them, and the ones that hit made her stronger. But, she was tiring quickly, and Dusty slowly started gaining the upper hand.

And then, it was all over in an instant. Yang jumped, and tried to finish with a very wild ground smash. However, Dusty saw the opportunity, and before she was even very high up, he was above her, and used a downward heel to smash her instead, and she was facedown in a cloud of dust in no time. Yang was knocked out, and the referee called the match.

…

Yang woke up a bit later, with Dusty kneeling beside her again. The same thing had happened again. She was beaten down, and needed to be picked back up. What killed her the most is that Dusty, the one who beat her in the first place, was the one helping her up, and commending her for being so much better than last time. She hated being the weak one, and being humiliated over and over like this by the same person. Yang lost track of the conversation, and sort of spaced out for a while, which was something she never did.

" –Yang. Earth to Yang. Hellooooo?" She heard Dusty saying.

"WAKE THE FUCK UP." He suddenly yelled, shaking Yang by the shoulders.

Surprised, Yang snapped out of her trance.

"You can't do that, you hear?" Dusty demanded, angrily. "The 'my pride has been shattered' act won't get you anywhere in a real fight. Everyone second year and up knows that pride does nothing but shoot you in the back when you need help the most. You wanna stop being the weak one? Then stop acting like a fucking 2 year-old, and start growing some goddamned humility! OTHERWISE YOU DIE."

Everyone stared on in shock. None of them had ever heard anyone that angry before, and someone like Dusty who seemed to never lose his cool, just added to the effect. Yang, especially, was terrified. She was the only one who had seen Dusty's face when he said that. It was full of pain, and for a second, he had looked like a helpless child.

Very suddenly, Dusty's face changed back to the usual blatant look, and he stood up. He turned, and slowly walked off, leaving the auditorium in ringing silence.

"Well, I daresay that this training session is over." Said Eddie, with a hint of concern in his voice. "Go back to your dorms. Everyone get some rest, especially you, Yang. I recommend you look in a mirror."

Yang, surprised, took the mini-mirror she carried around from her belt pouch. She was surprised to see a large bruise forming in the center of her forehead, where she had hit the ground. It was at this moment she decided that she hated Dusty from the core of her existence.

End of

Chapter 4


	5. Chapter 5: Weakness

**Chapter 5: Weakness**

Eddie went to visit Yang that night, and he found her alone in her room. Her teammates had left her, knowing that it was best not to talk to her in this state.

"You okay?" He asked. "You took a pretty hard hit back at the auditorium."

"Yeah, I'm fine." She replied, even though she wasn't. She was still shaken by the fact that she had been beaten several times, and the fact that he had actually hit her hard enough to draw blood (The bruise had stated bleeding later on). But most of all, she was shaken by the amount of anger and torment she had seen on Dusty's face when he yelled at her.

Eddie saw right through her, and sat down next to her on the bed. "What I'm about to say will be top secret between you and me, okay? Dusty will kill me if he finds out."

Yang, a little surprised and very curious, nodded after a short moment. Was she finally about to get some dirt on Dusty?

Eddie was silent for a while, and then he spoke in a low undertone. "From what I know, Dusty was a lot like you when he was little. Stubborn, angry, his parents even called him 'Little firecracker'."

Yang was surprised. Dusty seemed the kind of guy who was always blatant and levelheaded, not hotheaded. But what shocked her the most is that "Little firecracker" was what uncle Qrow usually called her.

"He was always a troublemaker, and a lot of people got onto him about it, but the one person who understood him was his grandma. She was a huntress, and the people called her "Old Lady Fang". She was the most skilled fistfighter in the world, and he learned from her. She and him were like peas in a pod. Both of them were crazy, and troublemakers. But one day, a very strange woman in a red dress bested her, and her pride was shattered. See, she had never lost a battle before, and she didn't know how to handle it. In the end, it drove her to suicide."

He said this all without a single break, with a dark look on his face. Yang knew now, what had made Dusty into the iceman he was today. Eddie didn't need to continue, but he did.

"After that, Dusty was never the same. He immediately stopped his stubbornness, and he eventually turned into the guy we know. But, there are times when you can see through the act, like today."

"Stop." Said Yang very suddenly. "If you're getting to an apology, I don't want it."

"I'm not, actually." Eddie replied. "Dusty is the one who needs to apologize. What I'm getting to is something completely different. See, the only times you can see through his act are times when something reminds him of his grandma. I think he sees a lot of her in you, and when he saw you getting discouraged, he saw his grandma before she died. He wanted more than anything to stop you from going down the same path she did…" he saw Yang's confused look.

"In short, he cares about you a whole hell of a lot, and he doesn't want you ending up like his grandma, no matter how much he lets on."

…

Dusty, as it happens, was in the Crow Bar, halfway through his third drink.

"Hey man, you okay?" said a voice from behind Dusty. Dusty jumped a little, then turned to face Roy.

"How many times have I told you not to do that?" He said this with a calm, level voice, but the look on his face was one of absolute murder.

"Alright, alright, note taken. But seriously man, you lost it in the auditorium. What's up?"

Dusty was silent for a good long while, and then took a deep, shuddery breath.

"She just… reminds me tons of my grandma. I saw the exact same look on her face when she woke up as my grandma did after she lost that match."

…

Yang was astounded, and for once, she had nothing to say. There were so many feelings going crazy in her head. She was flattered, but she was ashamed as well because of her hatred for Dusty. She didn't want him to care about her, and the fact that he did disgusted her a little. But aside from those feelings, she found that his situation was almost synonymous with hers: they had both lost someone they loved, and suffered. The difference was that Dusty had let it change him, and Yang hadn't. Yang was stronger than Dusty, not physically, but mentally.

Eddie had long since left Yang alone to ponder this new information, and her teammates had come back as well. None of them tried to speak to her, though, and she was grateful. She didn't want to talk to anyone right now. Or maybe she did. She didn't know. She had no idea what to feel about all of this, but she did know that Blake would know something. She always knew what to do in these situations. So, she waited for everyone to go to sleep. She was fortunate tonight, because Blake was still up, reading a book. Yang crept over to Blake's bunk, and popped her head over.

"Blake." She whispered.

Blake started for some reason, and hastily covered the book she was reading: a black covered book with red letters emblazoned on it. "Ninjas of-" something? Whatever.

"I need some help." Said Yang.

"O-okay, but warn me before you pop up like that." Said Blake. Just what was she hiding?

Yang sat down across from Blake, and when they were situated, Yang repeated Eddie's story. When she finished, Blake had a dark look on her face, and seemed to be pondering.

"Any ideas on what to do next?" Yang asked.

Blake pondered for a moment, and another, and for a while it seemed like she was out of ideas.

Finally, she spoke. "First of all, I think you should try to treat him with a little more respect. If he really did go through what you say he did, you should try to show him you're not going down the same road as his grandmother. After that, try to learn as much as you can from him, so you can get some revenge later on." She said with a smirk. "That is, if you want revenge."

"Definitely." Said Yang, with an even more evil smirk.

End of

Chapter 5


	6. Chapter 6: More Lessons

**Chapter 6: More Lessons**

The next day, Yang went to the auditorium after class, and found Dusty in the same place, smoking another cigarette.

"That shit's gonna kill you." She said.

"Not for another 20 years or so. That's plenty enough time for me." He replied. There was an awkward silence, and after a minute, he spoke. "Look, I'm… sorry about yesterday. There's some things you don't know about, and-"

"It's fine." Yang said quickly. "What's done is done."

Dusty looked genuinely surprised, and after a minute, decided to get going. "The next part of the training is to try and get away from your wild attacks. Now, what kinds of enemies have you faced before?"

Yang thought for a moment. "There are some henchmen… Beowolves, Ursai, a huge Nevermore, a Deathstalker, andddddd… that's about it."

"What kind of henchmen?"

"The stupid kind."

"Well, seems you haven't encountered anything that's smart enough to block or dodge." He seemed to think for a moment, and then said, "Alright, the next part of training is about to start. I'm about to come at you full force to see of you can dodge or block. Lessee if you can last 2 minutes. Fine with you?"

"More than fine." Said Yang, getting into her stance.

The next thing she knew, Dusty was right in front of her, coming in with a jab at the stomach. She wound a downward punch, but remembered there was no attacking allowed, and turned it into a deflective palm slap. She didn't realize how much force would be behind the punch, however, and her hand simply bounced off, and the punch connected cleanly. She felt the air knocked out of her, and fell to her knees, clutching her stomach. Then she realized he wasn't backing off. He was going for a downward smash. She managed to move out of the way, and she saw the floor crack where she had been, she shook herself back to clarity, and then just managed to dodge an uppercut, and then another jab. She caught another jab with screams of protest from her palms, and didn't see the foot coming. Again, she took a blow to the stomach. Her vision was getting blurry, and she couldn't even try to block the next jab. Her cheek exploded (or that's what it felt like), and she suddenly felt ice-cold ground on her face.

"Nice job." Dusty said. "I honestly thought you would try and hit me. Get up, we're going again."

The afternoon went by the same way, with Yang just managing to hold on for about 15 seconds or so, and then taking one good blow, knocking her down. It was agonizing to keep getting up, but she did anyway. And each time, she would go down again. By the end of the day, her aura was long gone, and she had bruises and cuts all over. She thought she would faint from the exhaustion, but miraculously, she didn't. She managed to stay awake through the entire training session, or almost. At the very end, she took a particularly nasty shot to the face, and she lost consciousness soon afterwards.

When she woke, Dusty was kneeling over her the same way.

"I think that's plenty enough for one day," he said. " Nice job. You improved to 30 seconds from 10, all in one day."

Yang was glad. At least these bruises weren't for nothing, and soon she would be stronger. Hopefully soon she would be strong enough to give Dusty a good thrashing.

After she woke up and got her sense back, Dusty called the session, and they walked to the dorms. He was surprisingly nice, which sort of crept Yang out. She didn't expect him to be a nice guy after all that had happened. He even apologized for the events of the past few days, Japanese-style, with his head on the floor in a deep bow. But that aside, they split up when she got to her dorm room, and said a quick goodbye. Yang wondered how her teammates would react to all the bruises, but decided it was best not to mull over it, and opened the door.

Sure enough, her teammates looked her way, saw the bruises, and gasped.

"Yang! What happened?!" Cried Ruby. "If it was that idiot Dusty again, I swear, I'm gonna kill him!"

Yang said nothing to Ruby, but asked Blake to help her apply some bandages, and sat down on her bed. Blake was next to her with bandages almost immediately, and Yang, quite slowly, removed her jacket (It hurt to move). Blake was always the most graceful of the team, and she tenderly wrapped Yang's bruises while managing to avoid causing any pain. All the while, Ruby was practically going nuts, and Yang tried again and again to calm her down, saying that it was only training. But, to no avail. Ruby ran out of the room- trailing rose petals behind her- to challenge Dusty.

A note from the author- I'd like to stop at this point and say that this is fan FICTION. None of this ever happened. So, when you read the next few lines, please don't try and kill everyone who may look like Dusty IRL. Now, back to the story.

Ruby came back ten minutes later with a giant, bleeding bump on the side of her head, with a heart-wrenching (But adorable) look of pain on her face. Yang (Although enraged by the fact that her baby sister had been beat up by Dusty) could do nothing but shake her head at Ruby's foolishness. She had undoubtedly charged at him full force, scythe swinging, and Dusty had gotten a good punch to the side of the face. Weiss scolded her for being such a dunce, and then helped with her bump. It seemed it would be a long time before any of them could compete with a third-year. It was a sobering experience for everyone.

The rest of the week went by much the same way, with Yang getting her ass handed to her, coming home to gasps, and somebody having to hold Ruby down to keep her from trying (the keyword being try) to kill Dusty. But the upside was that Yang was getting better, and she was increasing her time by 15 seconds or so everyday. Every time she faced off with Dusty, she knew she would end up in the dirt, but she also knew that it would be a learning experience. Dusty himself was impressed with how fast she was learning, and at the end of every day, he accompanied her back to her dorms.

At the end of the week, he had to carry her on his back, because she had been keeping him so on his toes that he had accidentally hit her full-force, and she didn't wake up. When he got in, her teammates seemed to be used to her coming home battered, so only a few gasps were heard when they saw her unconscious. After that, it was all business. The dark-haired one bandaged her, and tried to wake her up. The… um…. Ice queen (Yeah, that's it) tried to hold the red one back while she was desperately trying to get to him. She eventually broke out of her hold, and he had no choice but to knock her out again. The minor details aside, they had decorated their room ingeniously. There were bunk beds, posters, a painting (definitely Ice Queen's), and a bookshelf (The dark-haired one's, maybe?).

"So, has it been like this every day since blondie started training?" He asked, after the red one was laid onto a bed.

"Pretty much." Said the dark-haired one. _I gotta learn their names…_

"What was your name again?" he asked the dark-haired one.

"Blake," she said shortly. He had the feeling no one in this room liked him much.

"Remind me again why you're still here?" demanded Ice Queen. _Yep, sticking with Ice Queen for this one._

"Hey, I just wanna make sure I didn't give Yang a concussion, and to congratulate her on lasting this long without one." He said.

"And another thing. I'd appreciate it if you guys could possibly give me some better treatment. I really don't like hurting Yang like this, and I've made it clear that she can leave at any time. Yet she comes back."

"Oh really?" said Ice Queen, eyes narrowed. "If you don't like hurting her, why do you?"

"Because, Ice Queen, it's training. You don't get anywhurs if you don't get roughed up a bit." He looked right, and saw something peeking out of Blake's bedcovers. It was black book, with red letters emblazoned on it.

"What's this?" he asked, picking it up. "Ninjas of –" he stopped short, and an evil smirk slowly spread across his face.

Blake shrieked, and jumped for it. Dusty was faster, however, and easily kept well out of her way, all the while reading the book's description. After a while, Blake was out of breath, and Dusty finished reading the book description.

"I gotta say, I didn't expect you to be the type to read these kindsa books." He said with a chuckle.

The book was suddenly snatched out of his hands, and he turned around to see Yang, reading the book description with the same evil grin on her face.

"Tell me about it, right?" she said. "So this is what you've been hiding."

"Hey, y'think we should blackmail her for it? That would be fun."  
"No, we should just go ahead and upload it to Facebook!"

Despite the severity of the situation for Blake, she couldn't help but be awestruck by the fact that, one, Yang was already up and running. Two, she and Dusty were actually getting along, and really well at that. But, that could wait, because Yang was currently trying to take a picture of her book. Blake jumped at Yang, going at her full speed, trying to tackle her. The next thing she knew, she was on the floor, and Yang was on top of her, holding her arms behind her back. _What happened?_ Blake found herself thinking. She turned around to try and look at Yang, and Yang looked just as surprised.

"Well, well, well, seems the training is starting to show results." Said Dusty. "Quick, gimme th'book! I'll do it!"

Blake violently squirmed in protest, and shouted her disapproval, while Weiss stared on in absolute incomprehension. Soon enough, Ruby woke up, and seeing the situation, jumped into the fray, and the scene devolved into utter chaos. It was only the next morning when team JNPR came in to see why team RWBY was so late that they found the entirety of the team and Dusty sleeping in a heap on the floor, and got the wrong idea again.

End of

Chapter 6


	7. Chapter 7: Results

**Chapter 7: Results**

Three weeks had passed, and Yang was at least twice as strong as compared to when she started. Dusty, after realizing that she had been keeping up, moved on to the next phase of the training: incorporating her new agility into her combat style. This kind of training was the type you had to feel through by yourself, so Dusty had no way to teach her how but to go at her full strength, and let her see what she could do. She was allowed to use attacks now, and she was surprisingly quick to pick up on her new strengths. Only two days after the third phase of the training had begun, she landed a solid hit on Dusty (but still lost afterwards). But, there was also a downside to having this much strength. Her teammates were being left behind. She had gotten so strong so quickly that it was like she was a second-year student, while the others were still first-years. Yang didn't know this, however; it was her teammates who noticed.

"We have to do something." Said Weiss. "We can't simply stay this way. We'll be holding her back."

As much as Ruby and Blake didn't want to admit it, Weiss was right. They were too weak. If this kept going, Yang would have to wait for them, and it would devolve into a terribly misbalanced situation. They needed to get stronger, and fast. So, Weiss, Blake, and Ruby decided to ask the rest of team DRKE for help.

"Please train us!" pleaded Weiss, at the doorstep of team DRKE's dorm (Of course, she was accompanied by Ruby and Blake, but Weiss was doing the talking). Caught off guard, Roy (Who had answered the door) was stunned into silence for a bit, and then asked what this was all about after inviting them in.

Team DRKE had set up their dorm with whatever they could, and it gave off a sort of "Home under the bridge" vibe. Guest dorms were bigger than home dorms for some reason, and they walked through a mini-kitchen before coming to a medium-sized living room with a couch, a TV, and a coffee table covered in used mugs and beer bottles. Someone was a big coffee drinker in here, as well as the regular kind of drinker. Eddie, Roy, and Kevin were sitting on the floor (Dusty was busy training Yang), letting their guests have the couch, and sat across from team RWBY.

"What's all this about?" asked Roy.

Weiss explained their situation, with occasional nods and comments from Blake, and some from Ruby, who was being unusually quiet. Team DRKE listened intently, like they had seen this type of situation before. After Weiss finished, Kevin spoke.

"So you want us to train your sorry asses?" asked Kevin.

A note from the author- I'm sorry for not focusing on Kevin, Eddie, and Roy, but the plot has revolved around Dusty and Yang a little too much. Allow me to give you some insight into team DRKE's personalities. Kevin, as you could have guessed from that last line, is the asshole of the team, but he is the type of asshole that everyone likes anyway. Roy is friendly enough, but he has this indescribable sort of energy around him, and he is both erratic and hilariously funny at the same time. Eddie is the sort of peacekeeper, and the friendliest of the team. He keeps to his code, earning his position as knight. –

"Pardon?" asked Weiss, taken aback.

"Ok, dude, not the time." Said Eddie.

"Aw, come one, you know I was kidding."

Roy seemed to be thinking aloud. "Well, I have the time… Yeah, I probably should…" he came back to reality. "Well, I can train Blake, but my skills aren't a match for Ruby or Weiss."

Blake looked over at Roy, the person who had set her up, snuck up on her, and knocked her out without any effort. She always considered stealth her biggest weapon, and he had beaten her to the punch. He would be useful. "I'm fine with that." She said after a while.

Weiss was astounded that someone could so easily make a decision to devote free time to someone else. He had agreed without any hesitation or second thought.

"And I think Weiss is the closest thing to a swordsman in this room. I can train her." Said Eddie.

Weiss looked over at Eddie, who had beaten her back instantly, and then shot her accurately from a large distance. He had extreme precision with his sword and rifle, precision that (According to the scolding of her older sister Winter) she lacked. He could train her. "I'm surprised you could agree so quickly. I will be in your care, then."

"That leaves Kevin and Ruby…" Said Roy. "Yeah, I could see that working."

Ruby was easily the most naïve and inexperienced of the group, and because of that, she had been completely smashed in their fight. Smashed as in smashed over the head with a giant club. She had no doubt her skull would have been shattered if it weren't for her aura. He was experienced in big, smashy weapons similar to the big, slashy weapon she used. He would help her out a lot. "You'd best not go easy on me. I didn't even move an inch in our fight." She said.

"Why would I?" he said. "You'd best watch your head."

End of

Chapter 7


	8. Chapter 8: Shopping and Ships

**Chapter 8: Shopping and Ships**

Dusty and Yang had skipped on the training session that day to re-stock their supplies. This was an ideal situation for both of them, because Dusty wanted to see how the towns worked, and Yang could get some extra credit for showing a visitor around. They were walking through the shopping district, heading for a shop that Ruby had recommended, called "From Dust 'Till Dawn". Yang remembered Ruby had said something about this shop in the first ship to Beacon, but Yang couldn't remember.

They walked in, and an old man with a bald spot and spiky hair welcomed them.

"Hello there." He said. "And welcome. Young Hunters in training, I presume?"

"Yeah." Replied Yang. "I placed an order for a custom chain of 12-guage shotgun shells with kinetic dust imbuement yesterday. "

"And do you have any .44 Magnum Revolver bullets? Wind dust imbuement." Dusty added. "Certainly," said the man. "This way." With that, he hobbled off, and they followed.

On the way to the back of the shop, Yang and Dusty pulled out their weapons, and Yang finally got a good look at Dusty's revolvers. They were the heavy kind, built to shoot rounds with tons of stopping power, and there were knuckle-dusters attached to the handles. It looked like the gun itself didn't transform at all, but the handles simply detached. Simple, but effective. The old man went to the back to get the shells, and they were left to look at the impressive display of dust crystals, rounds, and phials. This shop was small, but it had options.

"12-guage Shotgun shells, fire type, and .44 magnum revolver rounds, wind type, am I right?" said the old man, who had come back with some boxes.

"That's right." They said in unison.

"Well then, how many?" He asked. He began rummaging through the boxes, and started pulling out long, silvery bullets that Yang could only assume were for Dusty's revolver.

"I'll take enough for 12 reloads of 6." Said Dusty.

The old man thought for a moment, then seemed to come to a conclusion.

"That'll be 96 lien at the counter. And how will you be paying, miss?"

"There should be included advance payment in my order." Yang said.

The man squinted at the cash register screen, and peered through the order transcript. No mention of advance payment anywhere.

"I'm sorry miss, but there seems to be a mistake in the invoice. I hate to do this, but I must ask that you pay up front."

Yang would have gladly paid again, but the problem was that she didn't bring any more money because of her advance order. This was a problem.

"Let me guess," said Dusty. "You didn't bring any money."

Yang was silent, and Dusty sighed.

"Alright, old man. I'll pay, so gimme the bill."

Yang was astounded yet again by this mysterious, dusty man. She had taken him as the kinda guy who would keep his money to himself, but here he was, paying at least twice the price of his bullets upfront. In fact, she would've thought that he was the kind of guy who didn't have much money at all.

"That'll be 400 lien on top of your 96." Said the old man.

"Yeesh, how do you buy these things so frequently?" said Dusty, slightly taken aback at the price.

"They're made by a friend back where I live… and he gives me discounts." Said Yang, sheepishly.

"What kind of 'friend' charges 400 lien for 6 strings of 12 shells?" asked Dusty, still digging through his jacket. Now that she actually looked, his jacket had a _lot_ of pockets. And now that he mentioned it, she did have a lot of "friends" who did things like this. She found herself remembering when she punched Junior, and the Malachite Twins, and some stupid henchmen.

"Thank you for your patronage. Please come again." Said the old man.

Dusty and Yang turned to leave, and when they got to the door, the old man spoke again. "Good luck, young man."

...

Ruby couldn't wait for Yang to get home, and tell her that team DRKE was training her. She was so excited that she was waiting right in front of the door, ready to jump on whoever entered. _Just wait 'till I catch up to you, big sis! I'm gonna be so strong!_ The door suddenly opened, and Ruby leapt forward, and only halfway down did she realize it was Dusty, not Yang. They ended up on the floor, with Ruby on top of Dusty, and Dusty looking mildly surprised. "Well, I'm glad to see you too, Ruby, but I coulda sworn you hated me." He said, chuckling a bit. Ruby, her face burning, accidentally activated her semblance while trying to scramble off of Dusty, and landed against the back wall of the dorm, face-first. Yang, who had been just outside the door, saw the whole thing, and laughed.

"You used to do that all the time when you were a kid, Ruby!" she laughed, helping Ruby up. Ruby had been.. Difficult to handle when she awakened her semblance. She was only 7 years old, and she still had no idea how to control her self, so she would often activate her speed when she was excited, and run into a wall.

Ruby, who had waited for Yang, tried to tell her about the training she was going to receive, but she noticed a bunch of bags in Yang's hands, and some outside the door that Dusty was picking up. Ruby, who was still just a kid, completely forgot about the training, and squealed excitedly.

"You went _shopping_? Did you get me anything?!" she squealed happily.

"Sure did!" said Yang proudly, pulling out a small red hoodie, with a short, black skirt, red sneakers, and a cute little hairpin. "Here you go."

"Yayyyyy!"

"I got some stuff for you guys, too!" Yang said to Weiss and Blake. She proceeded to pull out an outfit for Weiss, consisting of a white one-piece with frills, a light blue jacket, and white boots. Weiss looked genuinely surprised, and happy. "Thank you, Yang." she said happily. Yang then pulled out something for Blake: a torn-up black t-shirt, with dark jeans, and black heels. "Thanks." Said Blake with a look of satisfaction.

"I'm the best, aren't I?" said Yang proudly.

"Correction. I'm the best." Said Dusty. "Y'all should thank Yang for picking them out. But picking out and buying aren't the same."

Team RWBY, who had only been looking at their gifts, hadn't looked at Yang or Dusty yet, and noticed the clothes they were wearing. Dusty had an old, faded red flannel shirt unbuttoned to the middle of his chest, with an undershirt underneath, and dust-stained jeans on. He had his usual cowboy hat on, and for once, he looked good. Yang had a yellow shirt with an orange heart on the left side, with white short-shorts and her boots on. Her orange kerchief added a good accent. They also noticed that the bags were far from empty, and they saw all kinds of food in them.

"Why did you get so much food?" asked Weiss. "I have a baaad feeling about this…"

Yang and Dusty looked a little sheepish. "Welllll…" started Yang, "we sent to go get some ammunition, and we sort of got carried away, and we decided, 'why not just go all out?' and so we got all this food, and-"

"We're having a party, in short." Said Dusty. "There anyone you wanna invite?"

That took the entire team by surprise. It would take a while to think of anyone off the top of their heads. And now that they were thinking, why were Dusty and Yang out like this? Could it be… a DATE?

"Ooh, We could invite Sun and Neptune!" Said a voice from behind them.

Dusty reacted immediately. "God DAMMIT Roy, how many times-"

It wasn't Roy. It was Nora, and Team JNPR was right behind her, already in their casual clothes.

"Oh, sorry. I thought you were someone else-" Began Dusty, but…

"Of whom were you thinking about?" Said Roy from behind Dusty.

"God DAMMIT ROY!" Said Dusty.

Ignoring Dusty, Roy turned to Blake. "What's this about a party?" he asked. Blake, still reeling from the string of surprises, took a minute to answer. This situation was getting out of hand. "Yang and Dusty went and got some food, so they said they're throwing a party. You guys can come if you want."

"Definitely." Said Roy. "I'll go get everyone." He ran out of the room.

End of

Chapter 8


	9. Chapter 9: Party Time

**Chapter 9: Party Time**

Once everyone was assembled, it was indeed party time. Dusty and Yang had gotten so much food that they had to invite other teams, and eventually it turned into a full-on blowout party. Literally every team on campus was there, or at least one person from each team was there. Nevertheless, it was crazy. Someone brought in some speakers, and started DJ-ing, some other people brought balloons, and it was shaping up to be the biggest party of the semester. In fact, it bore a shocking resemblance to the dance that the school had arranged a few weeks ago. Yang was dancing her ass off alongside Kevin, Ren, and Nora, Weiss and Blake were talking to Roy and Eddie on the sidelines, and Dusty was hiding at the punch bowl with Ruby and Jaune. Pyrrha had gone up to the balcony to get some fresh air. The chaos was added to with the arrival of Sun and Neptune.

The instant Dusty, Roy, Eddie, and Kevin saw him, they all stopped mid-sentence and immediately ran over to greet their old friend.

" _Sun! How've you been, man_?" Dusty yelled over the bass. " _No cop troubles, I hope?"_

 _"Nawww, I'm fine. It'll take a bunch more than a bunch of underpaid slackers to catch me! This is Neptune, by the way!"_

 _"Sup."_

 _"So are you guys gonna party or what?"_ asked Sun. " _I haven't had a party in a long while!"_

Sun then proceeded to charge to the center of the dance floor, where Yang was, and started dancing with backflips, handstands, and acrobatics. Yang did not enjoy having her thunder stolen, and immediately challenged sun to a dance-off. Dusty meandered off to the drink bar to grab a beer; it was going to be a long night. Kevin joined Yang and Sun in a three-way dance-off to the death. Pyrrha came back to find Jaune, and dragged him to the dance floor. Weiss and Blake resumed their conversation with Eddie and Roy, and Ruby and Dusty were left at the punch bowl. They both gazed over the scene, surveying the damage that they had caused. Ruby saw Coco and Yatsuhashi (Coco looking stylish as usual, and Yatsuhashi was in a green shirt and camo pants), and Velvet and Fox seemed to have joined the group conversation (Fox was not talking).

"Who're they?" asked Dusty, referring to Team CFVY. "More first-years?"

"That's team CFVY. They're second-years, actually. I haven't seen them in action yet, but I hear they can stop a thousand Grimm in less than an hour." Replied Ruby.

"Pfft. Amateurs." Retorted Dusty. "If they could take down a Goliath, then I would be impressed."

Ruby stared at Dusty, enthralled with what he just said. You can't just talk smack without being able to back it up, and Dusty was not the kind of person to senselessly talk smack. Could Dusty's team really take on a Goliath… and come out on top?

"Then again, for second-years, I guess that is pretty impressive." He said. "You think any of 'em could keep up with me?"

Ruby thought for a moment. Yatsu was pretty slow, so Dusty could just dodge his way around… Velvet… maybe. Coco would not stand a chance, since she's more suited to crowd control, and Fox… yeah, Fox had a chance.

"Probably Fox." Said Ruby.

"Which one's Fox?"

"The tanned guy with orange hair, next to Velvet."

"Which one's Velvet?"

"The bunny Faunus."

"Hmmm…."

Dusty looked over at 'Velvet' and 'Fox', trying to see what they were about. Fox had the muscle structure of someone who was fast, and agile. If what _Ruby said has a grain of truth, he could probably keep up with me without much trouble._ Then again, it depended on his weapon. If it was something that suited his build and skillset (which it probably wasn't, nothing makes sense here), it was probably something moderately short, and stabby, like knives or a shortsword. He would look out for that one.

The rabbit, however, was a bit harder to see through. If her fighting style mirrored her Faunus species (Which for most it did), she would probably hop around a lot, and kick things. She would be hard to get to. If her fighting style were indeed kicking, she would probably have something to boost her kicking power, similar to Yang's gauntlets. Shotgun boots, perhaps (Oh, how wrong a person can be even when relying on logic)? Still, she seemed to be the type to keep a secret weapon, something powerful and dangerous (That's better). He would definitely look out for her.

"Why do you ask?" asked Ruby. "We're not enemies, so why are you acting like you're wary of them?"

"Because, Red, the tournament is only a few weeks away. I wanna know what I'm up against."

"Oh, yeah, I forgot. Do you think I'll be strong enough to fight you guys before then?"

Dusty stared at Ruby like she was crazy.

"How the- why the _hell_ would you think that?" asked Dusty.

"You don't know?" asked Ruby.

"Know what?"

"Roy, Eddie, and Kevin are training us."

It wasn't until a full minute later that Dusty comprehended what Ruby said.

"My teammates… Training you?" he asked, shocked. "Why?"

"Well, a few days ago, we realized that Yang's getting too strong, and she's leaving us behind. So, we wanted to get stronger."

"And you asked my team to train you?"

"Yep."

Dusty, still shocked, thought it over, and realized that Ruby was right. But what he hadn't realized that by training Yang, who was easily the strongest physically of team RWBY already, he wouldn't be turning Yang into a beast, but turning her teammates into ants. This would help team RWBY tons, and they would possibly skip a year it they grew fast enough.

"All right, you have my stamp of approval, but you have to tell Yang when you get home." He said.

"No problem!" replied Ruby with a smile. "In return, you can't go easy on us if we meet in the tournament! Deal?"

"Deal."

End of

Chapter 9


	10. Chapter 10: Aftermath

**Chapter 10: Aftermath**

Wouldn't you know it, the party lasted all night, and all of the people involved went home wasted in some way or other. Everybody was surprised that the teachers hadn't come in and shut the whole thing down. Team DRKE in particular, was especially hard to handle. All of them were off their asses drunk, and none of them (except Kevin) could speak proper English. Teams RWBY and JNPR had to carry them back to the guest dorms, two to a person. It was not a fun trip, with all the stairs, and stares from the more reclusive people who didn't go to the party. Yang and Ruby were at the back (Dusty had not wanted to get up), each holding up a half of Dusty. Ruby suddenly remembered that she had to tell Yang about their training, and figured now would be the best time.

"So, these guys are training us." She said referring to Team DRKE.

Now was not the best time. Yang, shocked to silence, dropped Dusty -taking Ruby with him- whose head smashed against the stairs, then rolled down the stairs with thumps and thuds, finally crashing to a halt on the stair rims. Dusty then found the best time to wake up, with Ruby sprawled in his lap, his back against an unfamiliar place, and (worst of all) the hangover of a lifetime. It was so bad that everything was hurting, not just his head. But, hangovers aside, why was Ruby all over him, and where was he? _Oh god, is this…?_

Yang, recovered from the shock, got down to Ruby and Dusty, to find their situations reversed. Dusty was suddenly awake, and Ruby was unconscious.

"Would... would someone please… tell me… if Ruby had… any drinks?" Asked Dusty, still trying to comprehend the situation.

Yang must've had a look of confusion on his face, because Dusty laughed a bit.

"This situation… is very… misleading…" he said, falling into another stupor.

 _Leave it to Dusty to turn everything into a joke like this…_ thought Yang, shaking her head in bewilderment. Yang rolled Ruby over, and slinging her over her back, started walking back to her dorms. As much as she wanted to help Dusty, she liked Ruby better (ouch). She would come back later.

30 minutes later, after getting Ruby home and into bed, she walked up the stairs. Dusty would probably be fine, but she didn't want him to get sleep-mugged by some other drunken students. She turned the corner to find Dusty… not there. Did he wake up and manage to get back to his dorm? Pondering for a few minutes, she noticed a small note where he had been. It read:

Yang,

I woke up, and neither you nor Ruby was there. I place shame on you for leaving an unconscious man alone in an unfamiliar place. If you come back and find this, prepare for the workout of your life next training session. Also, please tell me that was not what I think it was, you know, with Ruby. She's cute and all but trust me, I'm no pedo. All things aside, sorry for making you carry me halfway up here. I look forward to tomorrow. ^_^

Thanks, Dusty Revick.

Yang was surprised at Dusty's handwriting; neat and curly despite being drunk. Well, it was nice that he had good alcohol recovery ability (She had a feeling this would happen again sometime soon), but she was not looking forward to the next training session. Dusty was okay, so she decided to head back.

 _So, Ruby and the others are training with Dusty's team… huh._ Yang was wondering why the others hadn't told her, but she was sure they had their reasons. She wondered why they had even decided to train with them in the first place. Were they jealous of her, or maybe they wanted to get strong, too? Lots of questions like these were circling through her head, but she guessed she would ask later.

Yang arrived at her dorm, and went inside, to find everyone asleep. _Figures._ It was 5:30 in the morning, and none of them had gotten any sleep. Still, Blake was a nocturnal Faunus, so Yang thought at least she would be awake. It passed her mind that she should get some sleep as well. There were no classes today, so she could sleep through the day if she wanted. So, that's what she did. The second her head hit the pillow, she was asleep, and none of them woke up until the next morning.

Meanwhile, outside, Ozpin was walking the grounds, seeing if any of the students were still awake. It was unusually quiet, almost eerie. It seemed that no one had enough energy to keep going after a party like that, even the notoriously erratic Nora Valkyrie and the notoriously enthusiastic Ruby Rose. Even the kids from Vacuo, the most revered party animals in all of the four kingdoms, were dead asleep in their rooms. It must have been quite a party. He would have to thank Yang and Dusty later for keeping everyone's spirits up during this time of preparation and stress. Glenda, of course, would be furious with them for dirtying the auditorium and throwing such a rambunctious party without school permission, but that was to be expected. But for now, he would head back to his office and get some sleep himself. When you've been around for as long as he has, all-nighters take some energy from you.

End of

Chapter 10


	11. Chapter 11: Even More Lessons: Part 1

**Chapter 11: Even More Lessons: Part 1**

Blake, Weiss, and Ruby started the training two days after everyone woke up (The hangovers lasted the entire day after the party), and no one could be more excited. Well, to be fair, some showed it more than others. The second her patience ended (which wasn't long), Ruby ran full speed to the auditorium to meet Kevin, only to find Dusty and Yang going for each others throats. They must've been in there for a while, because they were both sweating furiously, and Dusty was bare-chested, trying to keep cool. Yang was covered in bruises as always, and Dusty had some, too, for a change. Ruby was amazed by the fact that Yang had gotten strong enough to land hits on Dusty so quickly, but that amazement was swiftly ended, as Dusty had knocked her down.

"Here early, I see." Said Kevin. "At least you're eager."

Ruby turned to see Kevin behind her, decked out in his battle gear, and also early.

"Man, they are going nuts, aren't they?" said Kevin, referring to Dusty and Yang. "It's kinda scary that she can keep up with him already…"

"It really is." Agreed Ruby.

They both decided to watch the next few bouts before beginning the training, and took seats in the bleachers. Watching two masters of the fist was scary even for people such as Kevin. They knew who would win every time, but Yang still held in there for a good two minutes, landing at least 5 or 6 hits before going down. Yang was more beaten up than Ruby had ever seen her before, and bleeding from several places, but the _really_ scary thing was that she was _smiling_. To have that many bruises and cuts must make it hard for her to even _move_ without a generous amount of pain, and yet she was smiling like she was having a good time. It wasn't nearly as bad for Dusty, but he was still covered in bruises. He wasn't smiling, but you could tell from the look in his eye that he was exhilarated to be fighting someone as strong as Yang.

The next few fights went the same way, and Yang lost. Ruby was slightly upset that Yang hadn't won a single fight yet, but hey, he was a third-year. Still, ranks and years aside, her patience had ended again, and she asked Kevin if they could hurry and get going.

"All right, fine." He replied. "Be forewarned, though. We won't be training in weaponless combat, so be prepared for some pretty serious injuries, tons worse than Blondie gets."  
"I've gone through worse!" said Ruby, letting her mouth run. She had, in fact, not been through worse, and she had little inkling of what she would have to endure through the next few weeks.

Kevin led her to a corner of the arena that Yang and Dusty weren't using, and got down to business immediately. Ruby, remembering the incident on Yang's first day of training, kept well out of reach, fearing that Kevin would try to feel her up. But "that" wasn't what Kevin had in mind, apparently. He only asked for her weapons specs, and how she used it. Ruby, happy to oblige, tossed him Crescent Rose, and started going into every single detail of its design. After a while, Kevin asked, "Interesting. How do you use it? I mean, you have to deal with the issue of the rifle recoil, and then you need to deal with the issue of swinging it around in the right way."

"Well, I can stick the scythe point into the ground to kill any recoil, and then I use the recoil to launch myself at the enemy, and then again to give my swings more momentum. It's actually really fun, like a roller coaster ride."

"Hmmmm…" pondered Kevin. "Well, that's a weapon style I've certainly never seen before. Weapon styles aside, though, I think it's high time I saw what you can do with it."

Kevin gave Ruby her weapon, and told her to walk as far away as she wanted. She walked almost out of the arena before Kevin told her to stop.

" _Now, you come at me any way you want, and I'm gonna judge your strength."_ He yelled from the other side of the arena. " _Any time you like."_

Kevin (Less unfortunate than you would think) didn't realize just how fast Ruby was, and how ready she was to attack. She was two feet in front of him before he could react. But Ruby (more unfortunate than you might think) didn't realize that Kevin was trained to deal with fast enemies like her. She saw a large orange light in front of her, and realizing it was Kevin's flamethrower, used her semblance to bounce the other way (This all happened in less than a second, by the way). She started to circle around him, a good ten feet away, looking for an opportunity to get in and cut him, but he was keeping his eyes on her, even with her speed. The good thing was that he wasn't quite fast enough to catch her with his flamethrower, but there was another issue. By now the arena was covered in fire (Luckily the arena itself was fireproof), and ruby was running out of places to run to. So, she decided to simply go at him full-speed, and bust through his defense.

…

"YOU ASSHOLE, KEVIN!" Yang screamed in Kevin's face. Yang, who had been watching Ruby out of concern, saw the whole thing, and immediately rushed over to Ruby (Now unconscious and against a wall), screaming at Kevin the entire way. After she had assured that Ruby had no injuries (Thank god for aura), she turned to Kevin, and yelled the above sentence.

"Bitch, I was charged at by a freaking rose twister. What would you have done?" he countered. "And plus, she agreed to this of her own free will. Not my fault."

"You could've just dodged! WHY DIDN'T YOU DODGE?" (For those of you who get this reference, I applaud you.)

"I'm a trained soldier tailored to defense and crowd control, dumbass. Do I look like someone who can dodge?"

"Awright, c'mon. Break it up, lovebirds." Said Dusty, trying to keep the situation under control. "Yang, little red's completely fine. They're training in armed combat, so this'll happen all the time from now on. Red's aura is pretty strong, so she has no injuries, but if she has a concussion when she wakes up, then you can try to yell at Kevin. Be forewarned, though, he has a retort for, quite literally, every insult you throw at him. And Kevin, try not to smash her head in too much, 'kay?"

"But I-" started Yang.

"No buts!" said Dusty. "How do you think Ruby felt when you came home with bruises and cuts? It's your turn to deal with it." Dusty turned to Kevin. "Now, what can you promise NOT to do?"

"I think I can promise no broken bones, but it's a stretch."

"That'll have to do. Yang, any words for this?"

"If Ruby comes home with anything more serious than a broken arm, I'm kicking your ass." She said, trying to keep her temper under control.

"Just try it, shitface. See what happens." Retorted Kevin.

"Kevin!" said Dusty.

"Alright, fine. I won't break any ribs." Promised Kevin "If I break this promise, you get one free punch and one only."

These conditions were agreed with, and Dusty led Yang back to the middle of the floor to get back to training, while Kevin waited for Ruby to wake up. It took a good while. During that while, Roy and Blake walked in, and started their training. Or at least, they walked in to say hello before going out to the emerald forest. There was no way to train in climbing, stealth, and concealing yourself in a room with literally nothing in it but a stage. So, Roy and Blake started the trek to the forest. Roy decided halfway there that it would be troublesome to walk this distance every day, so he called Dusty and told him that these would be 3-day trips with 2-day breaks in between. On the way there, Blake (compliant as always) asked about their training, and what it would consist of.

"Well, first of all, we need to up your stealth and attacking precision. Actually, what do you consider to be a stealth kill? Before we start, let's see what you know first."

Blake explained that her idea of assassination was killing the enemy before they even know you exist, jumping out of nowhere and securing victory in an instant. All the while, Roy nodded, agreeing.

"Well, I have good news and bad news. The BAD news is that you seem to have limited abilities in that area. The GOOD news is that you seem to know exactly what you're doing, so we're already halfway there."

Blake, slightly offended, asked,"What do you mean, limited abilities?"

Roy explained, "Well, you have one part of the concept of stealth down, which is concealing your physical form. You have an excellent affinity for blending in with the shadows, and you showed that when we fought. If I didn't know how to pick up on someone's breathing, movement sounds, and scent, I wouldn't have seen you at all. But, the problem with your stealth is just that: you breathe too heavily, and you make slight sounds when you move. It was actually pretty simple picking up where you were, and I was actually aiming for you when I shot at you, but I didn't know where your physical form was, so I missed. But then you jumped, and revealed yourself, so it was child's play getting to you with my semblance."

Blake drank the entire speech in, and quick to comprehend his speech, figured out what he was getting at.

"So I need to hide my breathing, and not move at all?" she asked.

"Ahh, you're quick to catch on. That'll make this easy." He replied.

"But what about my scent? If your nose is keen enough to pick up someone's scent, how will I hide it? Speaking of which, how is your nose as good as it is?"

"That's simple, actually." Said Roy, pulling his beanie off. Under his beanie were short, black dreadlocks, and… Faunus ears. However, what kind of ears they were was a mystery.

"What- is that?" Asked Blake.

"Bat ears." Said Roy. "Bats are actually really good at sniffing stuff out, and their ears some of the best in the animal kingdom. Don't worry, I wouldn't expect you to be able to hide your breathing from something that can use echolocation, but if you can, that will make you all the more deadly."

"Wow… I've actually never seen a bat Faunus before." Said Blake, mildly awestruck.

"While we're still on that topic, what kind of Faunus are you?" asked Roy, taking Blake completely by surprise.

"How did you know?" Asked Blake.

"Please, the back of your bow is furry. Anyone with eyes could see that. And while we're still on this topic, why do you hide it? I've seen tons of Faunus here already, and they aren't discriminated against."

Blake had no choice but to remove her bow, revealing her cat ears. "I want people to see me as a person, not a different race. Why do you hide yours? You don't seem like the kind of guy to hide things."  
"You're right, actually." He said putting his beanie back on. "I usually wouldn't conceal my Faunus heritage, but…"

A moment later, Blake understood what the metal under his beanie was. It folded down; making a mask that covered his face. "Lesson one, never let the enemy know your identity. You didn't see it during our fight because I was always behind you."

"Oh." Said Blake, completely out of retorts. For once, there was someone that her studious mind couldn't get around. It was like he had completely walled up every part of himself, so that nothing could get in or out for his enemies to pick up on.

"Now that we've got that out of the way, shall we start?" he asked.

Blake looked up, unaware that they had already entered the emerald forest.

"Oh, of course." She replied.

End of

Chapter 11 Part 1


	12. Chapter 12: Even More Lessons: Part 2

**Chapter 12: Even More Lessons: Part 2**

A while after Roy and Blake left, Weiss (punctual as always), arrived at the auditorium at exactly 9:00 (The time they were told to be there), to find Eddie not there, and everyone else already training. Eddie was late. Weiss was tolerant of many things (at least in her mind), but the one thing she refused to tolerate was late arrivals. She would give Eddie a piece of her mind when he arrived. Weiss waited, and waited, for nearly 5 minutes before Eddie finally arrived.

"Morning, Weiss." she heard him say from behind her. She turned on her heel immediately, and marched up to him, putting a finger in his face.

"Don't "Morning" me, Eddie. You're late, and I will refuse to tolerate tardiness, even if you are my trainer." she scolded.

"I'm late? What time is it?" he asked.

"It's 9:05, and we were supposed to arrive at precisely 9:00." Weiss replied.

"But that's only five minutes!" he exclaimed.

"I don't care if it's five or two minutes. I was raised to always be precisely on time, and I will not tolerate any tardiness from anyone."

"Ok, you need to take a serious chill pill, Ice Queen."

"And why should I until you promise not to be late again?"  
"Because It's only five minutes."

"That's no excuse!"

"Alright, alright. Jesus, someone needs to get laid."

"Excuse me, what?" Said Weiss, taken by surprise.

"Nothing. Now can we get to the goddamn training?"

"Gladly" said Weiss.

To her surprise, Eddie didn't lead her into the auditorium, but instead he took her on a walk outside, and finding a small convertible car, asked her to get in.

"Where are we going?" asked Weiss, slightly concerned.

"It's a special place I found before I met you guys. Now come one, miss punctual, we're losing time." he teased.

Weiss reluctantly got in, and Eddie started driving. It was nearly 5 minutes before either of them said anything.

"So, tell me a bit about yourself." He said.

"I'm sorry?" said Weiss.

"What?" he asked.

"What's this all of the sudden?"  
"What's what all of a sudden?"

"You asking about me."

"What's wrong with that?"

"A few minutes ago, you were arguing with me."

"Well, if we're going to be training together from now on, we might as well get to know each other."

Weiss was silent for a moment, then said, "Well, you're not wrong... Fine. But you have to tell me about yourself first."

"Fine with me." said Eddie. After thinking for a bit, he said, "Well, I grew up in the very center of Vacuo, in the big city. The city wasn't too far from an oasis that my master and I used for training, and every day, we would trek across maybe 2 miles of desert to get there. The training I did there was basically endless, and we only stopped when I literally couldn't get up any more. Then I applied to Shade without any combat school, and I met Dusty and the crew. All of us had the same sort of background: no combat schools and such, and we were the strongest team in the first year.

"Then things got tons worse in the second year. Every day was three times worse than a day in the first year, and no one passed, not even us. We passed the second time around, but then the Third-Year semester was absolute hell. We didn't pass the first year there, either, to say the least. But in our second Third-Year, we were shipped off to Vale for a tournament, and then we met you guys. And that about sums it up."

After a minute, Weiss realized the weight of what he had said. Eddie was strong enough to knock Weiss aside like a doll, and if she went with what he was implying, he still wouldn't pass this semester. And that meant that-

"Alright, Its your turn." Said Eddie, interrupting her train of thought. He was right, though, and it was her time to share.

"Alright," she said. "I grew up in Atlas, in the Schnee family's mansion with my father and my sister, Winter. Winter was already well on her way to becoming a great soldier in General Ironwood's army. When I was 8, Winter started training me in the Schnee family rapier style, and a year later I awakened my semblance. So she trained me for 8 years until I realized I was only going to be another soldier in Ironwood's army.

-A note from the author.

This was written at such time that her backstory was implied but not explained, so I went with the implications. At such time when her backstory is explained, I will revise.-

"So, I applied to Beacon, and my father was furious. But i didn't care. I arrived at beacon, and met Ruby, Yang, and Blake. And that brings us to where we are now."

Eddie whistled, impressed. "Pray tell, exactly how old is the rapier style you use?"

"Oh, umm... I'd say about three hundred years or so?"

"And your semblance? What does it do?"

The conversation went where you would expect, and by the time they arrived at their destination, Eddie knew Weiss's weapons specs and styles down to the last detail. Weiss came away with some new information as well, surprisingly: Eddie hadn't awakened his semblance, and it was likely he was never going to. He was 22, but most people awakened their semblance around 7 or 8. The people who didn't either awakened it very late in their lives or not at all. Eddie didn't seem too bummed about it, however, saying that "I really don't need a semblance with as good a weapon as i have."  
Semblances and styles aside, Their destination was on the very shady side of town, in the middle of ruined buildings and such. It was a huge club full of thugs and lowlifes. The doorman recognized Eddie, and they exchanged a handshake-brohug.

"Junior, haven't seen you in a while. How've you been?" said Eddie.

"Eh, can't complain. You need a drink or something?" asked "Junior".

"Not today, actually. I wanna use the back room for a second. I have a friend with me who needs some help."

 _Back room?_ Thought Weiss, alarm bells ringing in every corner of her mind. She wasn't very versatile with lower world culture, bur she knew what "back room" meant in a place like this at the very least.

"Really?" asked Junior. "Who?"

Weiss stepped forward out of polite instinct. Junior looked her way, gave her a weird look, and turned back to Eddie. "Ain't she a little young?" he asked.

"She's fine, trust me." Replied Eddie.

"Alright. This way." Said Junior, leading them inside.

After walking a bit through the club, (which by the way had a giant dance floor in the middle, neon lights everywhere, and strangely, some of the pillars were broken.) Weiss walked in front of Eddie, and asked what they would be doing.

"Considering where we are, and that we're going to the back room, and what your teammates have been doing today, what do you think we're doing?" he answered.

 _What my teammates have been doing?_ Thought Weiss, now scared out of her wits. Worse still, they had arrived at a door. Weiss prepared herself to see something very unsuitable for 16 year old girls to see, and when Junior opened the door, she saw-

A training room of gigantic proportions, decked out with every kind of training machine and/or equipment imaginable. It was huge, the size of a warehouse, and there were men all over the place, all having the same haircut and face, working out.

"This is... Not at all what I was expecting." Said Weiss out loud.

"And what were you expect-" said Eddie, getting the joke mid-sentence. He started laughing, practically on the floor, and Weiss was more embarrassed than she thought she'd ever been.

After Eddie stopped laughing (which was quite a while by the way), he looked at Weiss, and explained.

"This is Junior's new recruit's training room, and it's the best in the city. Arm strength, leg strength, cardio, aerobics, endurance, you name it and this place has it."

"It's funny really." Said Junior. "All of my men go through hell in here, and yet they still get their asses handed to them by a 16-year old girl."

"Really? Who?" asked Weiss.

"Don't rightly know, honestly." Junior replied. "She came in looking for someone, and when no one knew where that someone was, she trashed the place, and incapacitated almost all of my men."

"She sounds like a scary person." Said Weiss, sympathizing.

"Scary people aside, we should get to work. Thanks, man. I owe you one." Said Eddie, referring to Junior.

"Anytime. Just tell me when you're leaving." Junior replied, and walked off. Once Junior was out of sight, Eddie led Weiss to an unusually large boxing ring.

"Now, I'm going to see just what you can do, because I didn't see all of it when we were in the arena."  
Weiss, more than happy to oblige, took one corner of the ring, and Eddie took the other. The referee called the match and they began.

Weiss took her stance immediately, and so did Eddie, and they started circling each other. Weiss, seeing Eddie's stance in its full glory, was mystified and terrified. He held one fist toward her, and held his sword pointing towards her with his back hand, all with a low, widespread footing. It as an obviously defensive stance, so that meant he would wait for her to make the first move. She couldn't attack from the front, because that's what he was expecting, so she decided to attack from all directions at once.

Eddie was mystified as to what Weiss was doing breaking her stance. She was now standing straight, with her sword pointing upwards in front of her, and her eyes were closed. But then something that looked like a clock appeared below her, and she was suddenly surrounded by glyphs.

 _Ohhhhh._ He thought.

The millisecond before Weiss started her attack, Eddie broke his stance. Weiss realized what he was doing, but she couldn't stop, because she was already going too fast. She was behind him, and coming in with a stab in less than the blink of an eye, but he had turned around to face her, and to Weiss' complete surprise, he caught her stab with the flat of his blade, and pushed back, knocking her off balance. Weiss prepared for a huge attack, but it didn't come, surprisingly. When she caught herself, she realized he had taken his defensive stance again.

He was playing with her.

Weiss needed to step up her game. She activated the dust action on her rapier.

Eddie saw the drum on Weiss' blade start to glow, signifying that she was about to use dust. _Hah, so she's serious. That didn't take much._

Weiss used a glyph to launch herself at Eddie, her blade glowing red, and Eddie, surprisingly, didn't break his stance. Weiss realized what his stance was for the moment she got close. His fist blocked her field of sight, and she couldn't see where his sword would be coming from. Weiss adjusted her attack mid-stab, and swung her blade at the arm that blocked her sight.

Eddie almost didn't know what happened. His arm had been struck with such force that he was spinning, but despite that, he still knew that Weiss was coming in for a stab, her blade glowing yellow. His warrior instincts kicked in, and using the spin, he outstretched his sword, and knocked the strike away. When he landed, he decided to end the match, and launched himself at a still off-balance Weiss.

Weiss was still unsure of what had happened. She was on the ground and Eddie was towering over her, his sword pointing at her throat.

End of

Chapter 12


	13. Chapter 13: Knockback

**Chapter 13: Knockback**

After Blake, Roy, Weiss, and Eddie had left, it was almost an hour before Ruby woke up. When she stirred, Kevin (Bored out of his wits) walked over, and kneeled down in front of her.

"Well good morning, miss sunshine." He said. "You sure took your sweet time."

"Whaa- whaa happened...?" she said in the most "Monday morning" voice you could imagine.

"I slapped your shit, that's what happened." said Kevin. "But to be fair, you did surprise me at the end with that thing you did. What _did_ you do, anyway? That looked like a goddamn Pokemon move."  
"What's Pokemon?" said Ruby.

"A kids cartoon with a ten-year old harem king, a lightning mouse, a guy with spiky hair who never opens his eyes, aaand a crazy ginger who's obsessed with water monsters." said Kevin, forgetting that he was in a universe where Pokemon didn't exist.

Ruby, who was fully awake now, realized that she didn't have Crescent Rose on her, and panicking, she yelled "Where's my baby?!" at Kevin. Kevin took a minute to realize that she was talking about crescent rose, and then said, "I think it flew somewhere when I smashed you. I dunno where. Can't be too hard to find, right?"

Ruby wasn't there. After hearing the first sentence, she had started zipping around the auditorium, searching frantically, rose petals trailing behind her. Kevin just watched on in mild entertainment as she flew around. She finally found her scythe, and picking it up again, zipped over to Kevin, landing in front of him and cuddling her weapon.

"You did it again. What is that thing you do?" asked Kevin.

"What thing?" asked Ruby.

"That thing where you go really fast and trail flower petals like some sort of anime character." he said.

Ruby, even more confused with the references he was making, explained her semblance, and all the ways she could use it. It began to dawn on Kevin just how different their fighting styles were, and that would make it difficult to train her.

...

Meanwhile in the emerald forest, Roy was playing an advanced game of hide and seek with Blake (Blake was hiding). Blake was up in a tree, trying to breathe as lightly as possible, and she had already removed the scent factor by rubbing mint on herself. She suddenly saw Roy, who walked out of some bushes, his ears perked, listening for Blake. She pulled out Gambol shroud, and flipped it into whip mode.

Roy was, surprisingly, having trouble finding Blake. She had picked up on his breathing techniques surprisingly well, and her breathing was only as strong as a small animal's. And considering there were tons of small animals around, she was concealed. Roy, had promised not to cheat by using his semblance to teleport to her, and that was making things a bit harder. Then, Blake made her fatal mistake. Roy heard a metallic sliding sort of sound coming from a tree to his left, and immediately reacted, shooting an arrow (Harmless kinetic dust knockback arrows) at the sound. A bang sounded, and Blake fell to the ground.

Roy helped Blake up a few seconds later.

"How did you find me this time?" asked Blake, used to it by now.

"Your weapon. It made a sound when you transformed it." He said. "Next time, transform it before you hide."

Blake, studious as always, took Roy's advice to heart, and immediately committed it to memory.

"Alright, I think that's it for today." said Roy. "I think it's dinnertime. Blake, set up the camp, and I'll go find something to eat."  
"Wait, so, you didn't bring any food whatsoever?"

"It's another aspect of the training. Out in the field, you have very limited rations, so finding your own food is essential."  
"Oh, Ok. That I can handle." she said, thinking back to the days out in the wilderness, tracking down targets.

"Good. Now, I'll be right back." Said Roy, disappearing into the brush.

Blake got busy setting up the tent, and realized midway that there was only one. She hoped to god that Roy had packed another one, and simply took it with him on the hunting trip. But she would worry about that when Roy got back. After the tent was set up, she ventured a little way into the brush to get some wood, and when she came back, arms full, there was Roy, holding a duck by the neck.

"That was fast." Said Blake, genuinely impressed.

"Indeed." replied Roy. "I'm impressed, too. You set up this tent pretty fast. Do You have any experience camping?"  
"Yeah, I used to basically live in the wilderness, though I never did the hunting." she replied.

"Who did the hunting?" asked Roy.

"An old friend." Said Blake, thinking of Adam. She wasn't sure if she liked Roy's inquisitiveness or not.

Soon, there was an excellent fire roaring, and Blake quickly fashioned a spit to roast the duck. Soon, there was a delicious smell wafting through the air, and Blake found herself craving the duck, cat instincts kicking in. Surprisingly, though, Roy seemed a little on edge.

"Something wrong, Roy?" she asked him.

"Well, considering we're basically doing the equivalent of hanging a neon sign in the sky saying "Come and get me," Yeah, I'm a little nervous."

"What?"

"You seriously haven't figured this out? We have a fire pumping a smoke signal into the air, and that smell is likely to attract every Grimm in a good three miles."

"Ohhhhh..." said Blake. "If hat's the case, then why did you let me light it?" she said, losing her cool a little.

"Because we need food." he said shortly.

Blake was silent, now on edge as well. It was true, and she silently chastised herself for not remembering something so important. She was expecting a Grimm to come out of the bushes any second now.

"Alright, food's done." He said, taking the duck off the spit. "Blake, pack up the tent, and quickly. We need to move camp site. Whatever you do, do NOT panic. You know what that will bring."

Roy tore off one of the duck's legs, stuck it in his mouth, and tore off half the duck's breast, leaving it on the ground. He stuck the remains into his backpack, and put out the fire by stabbing an ice arrow into it, making a frozen fire. Blake watched while disassembling the tent. Once she had everything packed, Roy jumped onto a tree branch, and Blake followed. Just in time too, as two Ursa padded out of the brush. They both pinpointed the piece of duck that Roy had left, and plodding over to it, sniffed it inquisitively. Blake felt a tap on her shoulder, and looked over at Roy.

 _Let's get out of here._ He mouthed, moving away silently. Blake followed, admiring his tactic to distract the Grimm. A minute later, they were jumping ninja-style through the trees, and searching for another clearing to use as a campsite. They ate on the way, consuming most of the duck, and what was left over was kept as reserves. Soon, they found a clearing filled with ruins, close to the one where they killed the Deathstalker and Nevermore, and decided to camp on top of a tower-ish sort of ruin.

"Alright," Said Roy after the camp was set up. "I kinda like this place. It's got a really nice view."

"It really does." Said Blake, admiring the sunset along with him. She then remembered what she was dreading when he was out on the hunt.

"So, by the way, is there another tent that I missed, or..." she asked, dreading the thought of sharing a tent with a guy.

"No, why?" Replied Roy.

"Then... That means..." started Blake.

"We're sleeping in the same tent, yes." Said Roy. "Is there a problem with that?"

"Yes, there's a problem!" hissed Blake, both embarrassed and angry.

"And what would that be?" asked Roy, enjoying her reaction.

"Do I really have to spell this out?"

"Yes, please. I wanna know what's wrong." Said Roy, barely containing his evil smirk.

"Uuuughh. Screw this, I'm not telling you. You can sleep out here, for all I care." Said Blake.

"Ok, ok, fine, I was joking." said Roy. "We need to pack light if we want to move fast. What would have happened back there if there was another tent we needed to pack? The Ursa would have caught us."

"You're still sleeping outside." Said Blake, huffing, but having learned something.

"Come oonnnn, Blake~ You know you wannaaaa~" Said Roy, pleading but still joking.

"No, I don't wanna. Now would you please get the HELL away from me?!" screeched Blake, snapping.

"Jesus, I was joking. We need to sleep in shifts anyway. I'll take first shift, so go to sleep." Said Roy, his fun ruined.

Blake wasn't quite satisfied, and she kept a good distance away from Roy for a good time, until she realized he was telling the truth. She slowly crawled inside the tent. Inside, she could see Roy's shadow in the firelight, and she could see the stars through the tent's canopy. All in all, it wasn't a bad place to fall asleep.

End of

Chapter 13


	14. Chapter 14: Differences and Injuries

**Chapter 14: Differences and Injuries**

Kevin was having a very hard time figuring out a way to train Ruby, And could you really blame him? Kevin was a tank with a short-ranged weapon suited to defense, while Ruby was the exact opposite, being an attacker with a long-ranged weapon suited to offense. On top of that, the way they used their weapons were completely different. Ruby zipped around using the recoil of her rife, while Kevin sat in one place, resisting the recoil of his weapon. He had no idea how he would train someone like Ruby, while their only similarity was that they both used big, heavy weapons.

Speaking of which, while he was thinking of this, he was basically wasting time, knocking Ruby around. Currently she was above him, coming down with a strike to the head, but by now, you probably know how that song and dance goes. The point is, Ruby landed on the wall, and she didn't get up. Kevin was kind of worried that her aura might deplete soon, so he tried his damndest to think of a way to train Ruby while she was out, so that he didn't break any bones.

"Having a tough time, Kevin?" Said Dusty, walking over.

"Yeah, I can't- where's the Bitch?" asked Kevin, realizing that Yang wasn't with Dusty.

"Knocked out cold, same as Ruby." Replied Dusty. "Seems we both have some free time on our hands. So, back to what you were saying?"

"Yeah. I can't really think of a way to train Little Red when her weapon style is so different from mine, and I don't suppose you have any ideas either."

Dusty thought for a moment.

"Not really."

"Well, that's just fuckin' great." cursed Kevin. Kevin had not come across a problem he couldn't burn or bash the brains out of before, and it was pissing him off.

"Maybe you could find a way for her to train herself, and you just help her along, or something like that."

"The hell's that supposed to mean?"

Dusty pondered for a moment. "Not really sure."

"Then was there any point in saying that?"

"Not really, I'm just grasping at straws here. Oh, I've got it. What are the key aspects of Ruby's style? The ones that make her style dangerous?"  
Kevin thought for a bit, then said, "The ones that were most annoying was her speed, and the fact that she can change direction almost instantly."

"Then find a way to train those, and make her style even more dangerous, or... Something like that..." Said Dusty, losing his train of thought.

"Any ideas on how I would do that?"

"... Nope."

"You really are terrible at this, aren't you?"

"Yep." said Dusty. Dusty looked over to Yang, still unconscious on the floor.

"Are... You quite sure your girlfriend's okay?" Asked Kevin, teasing but still serious.

"I dunno, she's usually up and at me by now." Said Dusty, worriedly. "Shit, I think I might have given her a concussion..."

"Well, you have fun with that. I'm gonna go check on Little Red."

"Later."

"Later"

Dusty walked over to Yang, feeling the place on her head where he had hit her. Sure enough, it was bleeding pretty badly.

"Shit." Said Dusty.

...

Weiss, who was just getting up after the 52nd match (Yes, she was counting), got a call on her scroll. Blake, who was about thirty miles away, sleeping in her tent, also got the call. It was from Dusty.

"Hello?" they both answered.

"Hey." Said Dusty, sounding drunk. "Sorry to call ya in th' middle of training, but I have some purdy serious news. Yang is currently incapacitated in th' Infirmary with a concussion and a skull fracture-"  
"WHAT?!" Weiss and Blake screamed into their scrolls.

"OW. Look, I don't wanna interrupt your training, but y'all need to get back here ASAP and see Yang. She needs company right now more th'n anything else. Later."

Dusty hung up. Ringing silence, weighted with the news they had just received, hung thick in the air. After a minute or two, they finally were able to comprehend the weight of the situation.

"What was that about?" asked Eddie.

"We need to get to beacon RIGHT NOW!"screeched Weiss.

"Hey, Blake, go back to sleep. We need to-" began Roy.

"We have to leave, NOW!" screeched Blake.

...

Thirty minutes later, Weiss, Blake, Eddie, and Roy arrived at beacon at the same time, running into each other at the entrance. Neither of them talked, too focused on their goal. Three Minutes later, they stopped at the Infirmary door. Remembering never to disturb a patient, they entered quietly.

"Girls, what is this about- oh." said Roy.

The scene before them was not a pretty one. Yang was lying on a infirmary bed, barely awake, with her head bandaged and bleeding. Her eyes were open, but there was no light in them, like a dead fish. Ruby was lying over her leg, crying, and Dusty was next to her, his head in one of his hands, a beer bottle in the other. Kevin was standing, with a dark look on his face.

"What the... Hell.." stuttered Eddie. "What... Happened?"

There was no need for him to ask. They all knew what had happened, even without explanation. They all knew this day would come from the first day Dusty and Yang started training. The nurse walked in, and Weiss and Blake immediately asked "Is she going to be okay?!" in unison.

"I'm not quite sure. It's a skull fracture on top of a concussion. There may be long-term effects." she replied. "What I'm more concerned about is, how did she get such an injury with an aura as strong as hers?"

No one said anything for a minute, then Dusty, already drunk off his ass, spoke up.

"It was me." He said "Yang and Ah've been goin' through some purty serious trainin' for a good while now. She was keepin' me on mah toes so much, Ah..." He stopped short.

The nurse looked at Dusty with a stare that could impale a person.

"I have no influence over your decisions, but as a nurse, I highly advise that, unless Yang makes a complete recovery, you stop this training at once. If she gets another injury like this, it could be fatal."

Those words did not help the situation. Ruby went from crying to wailing, Dusty dropped his beer (which smashed), and put his face in both of his hands, and the rest of Team RWBY just stared on in a state of shock.

"Where... The fuck... Am I?" said a shaky voice.

"Yang!" cried Ruby. "Are you okay? What-"

"Shut th' fuck up, Ruby!" Hissed Dusty. "She don't need someone yellin' at her right now!"

Ruby stopped talking, and the nurse walked over.

"Miss, can you tell me what your name is?"

Yang completely ignored the nurse, and slowly turned her head towards Ruby and Dusty. "Ruby? What- where-" She started, confused.

"Yang, lissin to th' nurse." Said Dusty. Yang, squinted at Dusty, and then her eyes snapped open, the light returning.

"Dusty?! What the- Owwwwwwww..."

"Miss, please calm down. Can you tell me what your name is?"

"Yang. Yang Xiao Long." Yang replied, trying to calm herself.

"Very good. Now, what is the last thing you remember?"

Yang thought for a moment. "I was training with Dusty, and I threw a jab, and then-"

She stopped, not remembering anything else.

"Can you confirm, Mr. Revick?" the nurse asked Dusty.

"Yeah. Just a'fore she passed out, she threw a jab, an' Ah counter'd..." He slurred.

"Very good, Miss. Now, can you tell me the names of everyone in this room?"

Yang looked around, and named everyone in order.

"Well, there's no memory loss at least. Very well, then. You may visit for a few minutes. The headmaster and his assistant will be in shortly."

The nurse left.

"Well, shit, we're dead." said Kevin, trying to lighten the mood. It didn't work. Everyone was too shocked to talk, and for a few minutes, everyone sat in silence (besides Ruby's crying).

"Well," Yang said. "I suppose there is a bright side to this."

Dusty, depressed, asked "How can this have a bright side?"

"This'll give you guys a chance to catch up." she said.

"What do you mean?" Asked Blake.

"I mean, if Dusty and I kept training, I would have kept getting stronger, and you guys would have never caught up to me." Replied Yang. "This is you guy's chance to catch up. I don't expect you to waste it."

"Training in a time like this?!" Ruby said through her tears. "We need to visit you, and make sure you're ok!"  
"I've got Dusty for that." replied Yang.

"Me?" asked Dusty.

"Who else? Everyone else will be busy training."  
"Ah- Ah know, but, Ah thought you woulda trusted Ruby or someone you didn't hate."  
"Hating and trusting are two very different things."

Everyone was completely astounded. Even when incapacitated in a hospital bed, Yang still though of how to help people. None of them could refuse her. Everyone eventually agreed, and they were asked to to leave when Ozpin and Glenda arrived.

They waited outside, and they met team JNPR there, all with concerned looks on their faces.

"Is she okay?" Asked Jaune.

"Ah would say so." Replied Dusty. "She wus up an' talkin' thirty minutes after she got th' injury."

Jaune turned on Dusty, angrily. "Look, I don't want to hear a word from you. YOU'RE the one who did this to her, so you don't get to act all concerned. This is YOUR fault."

"S'cuse me?!" Dusty yelled. "Why're YOU actin' all tough, Jauny-boy?! You pickin' a fight?! You couldn't HOPE ta fight goddamned RUBY, let alone ME, so Ah suggest you turn yer ass around afore I drop ya."

"You think you have the RIGHT to pick a fight after what you just did?! So that's your plan, huh?! Earn all of our trust then beat the shit out of us?! Go ahead, kill me! You're just proving my point!"

"Oh trust me, Ah will, you little-"

"STOP IT!" screamed someone from the infirmary. Everyone turned around, and to their complete shock, there was Yang, leaning on the doorway, with nurse begging her to get back to her bed. She let go of the wall, stomped over, and punched both Jaune and Dusty in the face, one after the other. Jaune ended up on the floor, and Dusty hardly flinched, but the point still got through.

"You!" Yang said to Jaune. "This was MY choice, so leave Dusty out of this! Trust me, I'll kick his ass for all of us someday."

Yang turned to Dusty. "And YOU. Leave the poor bastard alone. He gets enough beatings from Cardin as it is!"

Dusty, still drunk, was not eager to let go of his rage, and simply turned, walking away.

"You'd BETTER RUN, YOU LITTLE-" Jaune couldn't finish his sentence. Dusty was right in front of him faster than he could blink. He grabbed Jaune by the hood, and lifted him off his feet, giving him the most murderous look you would see in a lifetime.

"Ah swear ta gawd, you little shit. Ah don't care what Yang says anymore. One more word, one more word, and yer ass'll be six feet under before you can say "Ursa."

Dusty dropped Jaune on his ass, and walked away.

End of

Chapter 14


	15. Chapter 15: New Kid In Town

**Chapter 15: New Kid In Town**

Dusty disappeared after the incident with Jaune, and he didn't turn up again for a good two days. In that time, Blake and Roy left for the emerald forest again, and Weiss and Eddie started making their trips to Junior's workout room. Kevin figured out a way to train Ruby, and they started working on her reaction time and speed.

"Alrighty, we're here." Said Kevin, stopping his truck. Ruby, who was never good with car rides, snapped awake, and looked up. They had stopped in front of a baseball training building.

"Why are we here?" asked Ruby. "This a place meant to train baseball players."  
"Just wait and see." Said Kevin.

He led her into the building, passing tons of baseball players hitting baseballs shot from machines. They came to the final machine, and it was the only spot that was vacant.

"Meet The Pummeler." Kevin said, referring to a gigantic ball machine. "He'll be your training partner for the next phase."

"What?" asked Ruby, confused.

"Can we go ahead and move this out?" Kevin called to an important-looking man.

"Sure thing." said the man.

Kevin, to Ruby's complete surprise, bent over and picked up the gigantic machine, weighing god knows how many tons (1.5) straight off the ground, and carried it all the way to the truck without much effort. He tied it down and closed the truck, then asked her to get in again. It was a few minutes after they started driving that Ruby asked what they were doing.

"That machine that I just picked up is a modified Grimm turret redesigned to shoot baseballs. Originally, the owner of that building bought it a a super-training method, but literally no one could train with it."  
"Ok, so why do we have it."  
"Because you're gonna train with it."  
"WHAT?"

"Pretty cool, huh?"

"Aren't Grimm turrets supposed to shoot 11 rounds per second?!"

"Yeah, I can't wait to see what it can do!" said Kevin, fanboying over the turret.

...

Weiss, who hadn't gotten to her training last time, welcomed the back room with open arms. Eddie, who was eager to see if she could walk the walk, was excited as well. Eddie led her to a wall, but it was no ordinary wall. It was made of steel, and had scratch marks all over it.

"What's this?" asked Weiss.

"This is your training." replied Eddie.

"How do I train with a wall?"

"What you're going to do is stab the wall."

"O-ok."

"Whoa, wait. Not with your rapier. With this." Eddie said, tossing something large and metallic at her. Weiss tried to catch it, but... She was thrown to the floor. The air knocked out of her, she looked at what was pinning her to the floor, to see it was a giant sword, bigger than she was.

"Hey, um... You okay down there?" asked Eddie from above her.

"Hkkkaa... Huuuuhhhh..." she breathed, unable to speak.

Eddie bent down, and lifted the sword off her as if it was a knife. Weiss sucked in a gulp of air, desperate to get her breath back.

"Wow, you... Really need some strength training." Said Eddie.

"What- what exactly was your plan there?"

"Well, we were going to train your sword striking strength with that, but seeing as you can't even lift it, I guess we need to start slow."

Weiss got up, and getting her breath back, she walked over to Eddie.

"You caught me off guard, that's all. Let me try again."  
"Alright, but I'm not responsible for anything that happens." he said, holding the handle towards her. Weiss grasped the handle with her best iron grip, and started pulling, using all her strength. After about three seconds, the tip of the sword started to come up ever so slowly... And six seconds later, she had managed to pick up the sword and keep it up.

"All- All right." said Weiss. "What now?"

Eddie, mildly impressed, said "Now, stab that wall as hard as you can."

"Okay." Said Weiss, slowly lifting the sword into stabbing position. She aimed at the wall, and using all her strength, stabbed.

"Alright, hold that pose." said Eddie, walking over. He looked at the place where the sword hit, and said "Impressive, you got a full two inches in."

Weiss, wondering how he knew that, looked at where he was looking, and saw lines and numbers on the sword.

"This is... A ruler sword?" asked Weiss in disbelief.

"To measure your stabbing strength." Replied Eddie. "All right, keep stabbing. When this sword feels natural to you, then we can move back to your rapier."

"You're kidding! That'll take weeks!" cried Weiss.

"Better start stabbing, then."

...

Yang wondered how the rest of the team's training was going. She was bored out of her wits, with no one to talk to, and no one to keep her company except the boring nurse. Dusty had gone missing, and it was unknown as to whether he would return. The day before, when they figured out he wasn't just taking a break from things, his team didn't act surprised in the least.

"He does this every two months or so." Eddie had said. "He's an iceman most of the time, but one does not simply be an iceman forever. Every now and then, he has to let it out somehow. Trust me, you should be grateful he decided not to let it out close to use, or heaven forbid on poor Jaune."

Yang snapped back to reality when she heard the nurse's voice.

"-may start walking now, if you wish."

"I'm sorry, what?"

"You are healing surprisingly quickly, Yang. I think you can start walking now, if you wish." The nurse said.

"Really?"

"Of course." replied the nurse with a smile. "however, you are not discharged yet, so I recommend you keep your walking time to less than an hour a day."  
"Can I get a walk in now?"

"Of course. But, just to see if you're safe to walk, I'll be coming with you."  
"Ok."

"Slowly, now. Slowly."

Yang slowly swung her legs over the side of the bed, and testing her footing, stood up. It felt good to be on her feet again. She decided she would go to the courtyard to get some fresh air. So, she walked. She conversed with the nurse along the way, and she was glad to finally be out of that bed. After a minute or so, they reached the courtyard.

"-and then, guess where we found them? They were at a noodle shop, having dinner, while we were busy fighting a giant robot!"

"Oh my, how unpleasant."  
"I know right, Weiss got so angry at them-" Yang stopped short, and saw a familiar silhouette in the distance. Right next to another silhouette she didn't recognize. A girl's silhouette. Yang, happy but still angry, immediately started stomping over.

"Dusty, you asshole, where have you been?" She yelled when she was close enough for him to hear. Dusty turned, saw Yang walking, and gave her the biggest smile she had seen from him.

"Yang. Good to see you walking again."

"Nevermind that, answer the goddamned question!"  
"Oh, you know, out and about. Going places, meeting old friends." Dusty said this, referring to a very pretty-looking woman next to him.

"Yang, this is Akiya. Akiya, this is Yang, the person I told you about."

"Akiya" was tall, looked several years older than Dusty, and was dressed in a red kimono. She had a very fox-like face, and her hair was long, sleek, and black.

"Hi." said Yang, extending her hand. Akiya didn't take it, but stared at her with a look of disdain.

"Well, I must say I was expecting you to be older. And look at you, in a hospital gown! Dusty, I wasn't aware you were into the "sickly little girl" type." she said.

"Wait, what?" stuttered Dusty.

"This is your girlfriend, is she not? You were talking so fondly of her, so I assumed."

Yang did not like this girl already.

"If I may interject," Began Yang. "Fuck. That."  
"Ouch, Yang. Could you maybe sound a little less offended?" said Dusty, sarcastically.

"Just wanted to get my point through."

Akiya looked a little relieved, but was not convinced.

"Look, you even argue like a couple." she chuckled.

"WE ARE NOT A COUPLE!" shouted Dusty and Yang in unison.

"You two even shout the same way! I must say I am not convinced in the least."  
"Oh, fine. Think what you want." Said Yang, realizing this girl was a lost cause.

"Dusty, who is this girl, anyway?"

"She's a friend of mine from Atlas. She's one of those "Combat Geniuses" I told you about."

"Which means...?"

"We're the same age, but she graduated from Atlas two years ago."

"You're the same age? She looks tons older than you."  
Akiya, offended, said "Well, excuse me if I have a bigger rack than you." Which she did.

"Oho shiiiiiit!" laughed Dusty.

"You wanna go, is that it?" hissed Yang, leaning into Akiya's face.

"Try me, tiny tits." gloated Akiya, leaning right back.

"OOOookayyyy, girls, let's take a chill pill. Yang, You're in no condition to fight anyone right now, especially someone twice as strong as me. And Akiya, I get that you're jealous Yang has been getting more attention than you, but please, take it out on something that can fight back."

"I'm not jealous!" hissed Akiya indignantly.

"Pah, bullshit." said Dusty. "You know better than anyone that I'm not one of those dumbass protagonist guys."

Akiya was silent.

"Now, Yang, as good as your recovery ability is, I think you should get back to your bed."

"That's right, Yang." Said the nurse, who Yang had completely forgotten about until now. "It's been a good 45 minutes, and we need to start making the trip back."

"But-"  
"Lissin to the nurse, Yang." insisted Dusty.

After a moment, Yang quietly went with the nurse.

"Allow me to accompany you." said Akiya, suddenly polite.

"Yeah, how about no-" began Yang

"Of course." said the nurse.

They began the trip to the infirmary, and Akiya, surprisingly, was polite all the way there, talking with the nurse about Atlas, and how different it was from Vale. When they finally got there, Akiya asked for a moment alone with Yang, who was back in her bed.

When the nurse was gone, Akiya asked, "So what happened to your head?"

Yang, who still didn't trust Akiya, said "I was training with Dusty, and he hit me a little too hard."

"Oh my, she's a masochist as well! Dusty, how much _have_ you changed?" said Akiya, supposedly talking to herself, and going into a sort of trance.

"Okay, whooooaaaaaa. You need to chill. I keep telling you, we're not like that. He's training me in _fistfighting. Fist. Fighting."_ said Yang, as clearly as possible.

Akiya came out of her trance, and an angry look came over her face. She, without warning, leaned in very close.

"You had best listen, Tiny Tits. I want to make it clear that if I see you doing _anything, anything at all_ with Dusty... Well, you're obviously smarter than you let on. I think you can go with the implications."

"I keep telling you, we're not like that!"

"Bullshit. Anyone with eyes could see that you two are a little too intimate. Now then, I'll take my leave."

Akiya stood, and letting the message hang in the air, left the room, leaving Yang to fester with this warning.

End of

Chapter 15


	16. Chapter 16: Not-So-Empty Threats

**Chapter 16: Not-So-Empty Threats**

Yang was deemed healthy enough to move to her room, and stay there instead of the boring hospital room. At least there she could play video games, and she had Zwei. Yang didn't have to be bored any more. And plus, she snooped through Blake's books, and found where she hid the dirty ones, so she could tease Blake about them when she got back. Maybe she would tease her about it over video call.

Weiss and Ruby came back at around 10:00 that night, and both looked exhausted out of their wits. Ruby was covered in large, circular bruises, and Weiss could barely lift her arms.

"Yikes, guys, what happened?" Yang asked, surprised.

"Kevin got this giant baseball turret and told be to try and dodge all the baseballs it shot at me, so I got beaten up."  
"Eddie asked me to practice with this sword that was twice my size, and it was heavier than it should have been, so I could barely lift the damn thing."

"Yikes."

"Anything happen to you today?" asked Ruby.

"Well, Dusty came back, and he brought this bitch named Akiya with him."  
"What?" cried Ruby. "I thought you were his girlfriend! That cheating son of a-"

"What gave you _that_ idea?!" asked Yang.

Weiss and Ruby looked at each other in confusion. Weiss spoke up a few seconds later. "Well, you two seem so intimate, and you did go on a date... So we assumed."

"You wouldn't be the first." said Yang in exasperation.

"Who was the first?" asked Ruby.

"I'll tell you in a bit. I want Blake to hear this." Replied Yang, Face-Calling Blake. After a few rings, Blake picked up, and her face appeared on the screen.

"Hey, guys." She said.

"Good to see your face." said Yang. "How was your training?"

"Not too bad. Wow, you guys look beat."

"Apparently Ruby and Weiss's training was pretty extreme." Said Yang. "But get this. Dusty finally decided to come back today, and he had this bitch named Akiya with him."

"Bitch?" asked Blake. "What was she like?"

"She was this Japanese-looking girl, and apparently she and Dusty were the same age, even though she looked older than him. She would act all polite, but then she thought Dusty and I were going out, and went all Yandere on me."  
"You and Dusty _aren't_ going out?" Asked Blake.

"No! Why does everybody think that?" hissed Yang.

"Well, you two seem so-" began Blake.

"Intimate?" Asked Yang.

Blake, surprised, said "Well, yeah. You took the words out of my mouth."

"He's five years older than me! Why would we be going out?!"  
"Good point."

"And get this, she's supposedly twice as strong as him!"  
"Wow, sounds like you'd better convince her that you aren't going out quick." said Weiss.

"I tried, but she won't hear any of it!"

"Well... Sucks to be you, I guess." laughed Blake.

"What should I do?! She'll kill me if I start training with Dusty again!"

"Like Weiss said, you'd better convince her quick."

"How?!"

"How am I supposed to know? I've never met the girl." said Blake, then seemed to ponder for a minute. "Maybe you could-"

"What's this about, Blake? You're supposed to be asleep." Said Roy, suddenly behind her.

Blake squealed, and from Yang's side, it looked like she had dropped her scroll. For a minute, it was unclear what had happened, and all they could hear was Blake yelling at Roy. Finally, Blake picked up her scroll, and Roy joined the call. Yang explained her situation again, and when Yang mentioned Akiya, Roy's face lit up.

"Akiya's here? That's cool!"  
"You know her?" asked Yang.

"Yeah, and the same goes for the rest of my team. We met her on a mission to Atlas, and she fell for Dusty almost instantly."

"Do you like her?"

"Well, yeah. She's fun to be around when she's not going Yandere over Dusty. And there's also that... Oh shit! Does she know that you and Dusty are going out?!" he hissed, looking genuinely concerned about Yang.

"We are NOT going out!" Yang shouted.

"You're not? But you two seem so-"  
"I KNOW. We seem so intimate."

"Well, it's a good thing you're not, because the last time she saw a girl on a date with Dusty, that girl got her legs broken."  
Yang was silent, terrified for her own safety.

"Um-" she began. "The thing about that is, she thinks we're going out, even though we're not..."

"Well, sucks to be you." said Roy. "I'll provide the flowers at your funeral."

"NOT funny, Roy!"

"I'm dead serious. The only reason she didn't kill that girl the last time is because it was a sort of one-time thing."

"Now that you brought that up again, Dusty's dated other girls?"

"Well, yeah, all of us guys have dated at least a few people. I know that's surprising, but as socially withdrawn as he is, he's still 21. Anyone who hasn't gone on a date at that age has no hope in hell."

"Alright, good to know, but getting back to the current issue, WHAT THE FUCK AM I SUPPOSED TO DO?!" screamed Yang.

"I highly recommend pissing yourself, followed by a course of praying to your impotent god." (This is another reference, by the way. If any of you have gotten all of the references so far, you're awesome)

"NOT FUNNY ROY!"

"I'm being serious here. Akiya's stronger than us, so there's nothing any of us can do. If you don't think of something quick, she's gonna kill you."

"...shit."

"Well, have fun with that. I'll get back to my shift. Later." Ray said this, then crawled out of the tent, leaving Team RWBY in silence.

Yang was officially screwed.

End of

Chapter 16


	17. Chapter 17: Acceptance

**Chapter 17: Acceptance**

Yang, who had many games to play, was not bored anymore, and Dusty was there as well, so that just made it better. But, Dusty being there was what was driving her to her impending death. Having nothing else to do about the situation, Yang simply decided to accept her demise, and have as much fun as possible before Akiya swooped in. Dusty, surprisingly, was pretty good at the game they were playing (Ninja Assassin III), and his win-to-loss ratio was about 80/20.

"So," said Yang after her 135th loss. "If, say, Akiya was coming to kill me because she thought we're dating, what would I do?"

"We're _not_ dating?" asked Dusty.

"NO!"

"Ok then, Christ. Sorry, I simply assumed." he said, keeping a surprisingly straight face.

Yang, surprised, said "I thought you would be a little more upset."

"Did you really? You make it sound like I was the one who stated the entire thing."

"You were."

"The last time _I_ checked, _you_ were the one who started going shop-crazy when I bought those bullets for you. But that aside, we're getting off track."

"Off-track from what?"

"The question that you asked me less than a minute ago, unless you forgot already."

"Oh yeah... Sooooo, again, is there anything I could do in that situation?"

"Not really."  
"You know, you guys are not helping at all."  
"I know, but considering one Akiya is worth two of me, there's nothing you, or I for that matter, can do if she was legitimately coming to kill you. And, considering your way of speaking, she is. Why?"

"I already told you, she thinks we're dating."  
"No offense, but so did I until a minute ago. You won't convince anyone, let alone Akiya, with that act."

"Oh... crap baskets."

They were silent for a while, and kept playing the game to lighten the mood (It didn't work for Yang because she kept losing). Yang was trying her damndest to think of a way to get Akiya off her ass, and it wasn't working. She was one of those "Pretty as a fox, stubborn as an ox" type of characters, so convincing her wouldn't work...

"I'VE GOT IT!" screamed Yang, almost knocking Dusty over.

"Ow, Yang. Warn me before you scream in my ear next time." moaned Dusty.

Yang, quieting down, said, "Dusty, I need your help."

"What's this about?"  
"I figured out a way to convince Akiya that we're not dating."  
"Really, now? In that case, by all means, fill me in."

"Alright, are you listening?"  
"Yes."

"You sure?"

"Yes."

"Alright, here it is."  
"Get on with it."

"I want you to go on a date with Akiya."

"Pardon?" said Dusty, surprised.

"No, really, think about it. If you go out on a date with Akiya, that'll convince her that we're not dating, and therefore, prevent my impending doom. Now, the question is, do you _want_ to go on a date with Akiya?"

Dusty was silent. _Well,_ he thought, _let's think about this objectively, Dusty. Akiya is a fun person to be around when she's not going all Yuno on someone, and I've known her for at least four years. She's one of the most gorgeous girls I've ever met, and that rack is one of the best I've ever had the privilege to look at. She's more than strong enough to provide protection from pretty much anyone besides a select few, and on top of that, she's crazy about me, literally. Plus, I'll be saving a good friend._

After a minute, Yang was growing concerned that Dusty might be backing out, but to her surprise and great joy, he said, "Alright, I'm in."

"Great! Now, how do we set this up..."

"What do you mean?"

"What do you mean what do I mean? We have to set up a situation where you can ask her, don't we?"

"No. Why would we? Knowing her, she'll say yes, no matter the mood."

"How do you know?"

"Because she's goddamn Akiya, dumbass. You of all people should know how crazy she is over me."  
"Well... You're not wrong..."

"Now then, I you don't mind, I'll go and ask her." said Dusty, punctuating the last word by decapitating Yang's character.

"Soaring Ninja wins! Total Annihilation!" said the game.

"Right now?" asked Yang.

"Yes, right now. I'll be back." said Dusty, putting his hat and coat on.

...

Akiya, as it happens, was in her room, reading a book. She wondered what Dusty was doing right now. Maybe she would look for him and see for herself. She decided to do so, and getting dressed, headed for the door, one side of her body still outside her kimono.

...

Dusty arrived outside Akiya's dorm room, and was about to knock, when the door opened by itself, revealing a half-dressed Akiya, apparently going out somewhere. They both stood there for a minute, trying to process the situation. Dusty got a hold of himself, and whistled, admiring Akiya's form in it's full, naked glory. Akiya squealed, and shut the door quickly, so embarrassed that she could die. Dusty, levelheaded as always, leaned against the wall next to her door, waiting for her to get ahold of herself. After a minute, her voice, muffled by the wall, squeaked, "Wh-What are you doing here, Dusty?"

"I was actually gonna ask you out, but seeing as I just achieved what I was after the entire time, I see no need anymore. Later."

Dusty started walking away very slowly, chuckling at his own cunning. _Dusty, you sly dog._ _Aaannnd, three, two, one..._

Akiya's door opened very quickly, and she came running over, pleading him to wait.

"You- You what?!" She squealed.

"Yes, I was going to ask you out. Why are you so surprised?" replied Dusty.

"I-I... Didn't you... Don't you have a girlfriend?!"

"No, I don't. Yang's an honest person, Akiya. She was telling the truth when she said we weren't dating."

"O- oh..."

They stood in silence for a minute, Akiya more relieved than she had ever been, and Dusty barely containing his evil smile. After a minute, Dusty said, "My... Offer still stands, if you want to."

"O-of course! I mean, yes." Akiya said. "I would love to."

"Alrighty then, the park at 4:00, sound good?"

"Of course!"

"Good, see you there. Later." said Dusty, his goal secured and Yang's life saved.

"Goodbye!" called Akiya.

...

Dusty walked into Team RWBY's room a minute later, to reveal yet again another half-dressed body, this time it was Yang's. Dusty, who was already used to it, couldn't help but admire Yang's form; not as filled out as Akiya's, but still exceedingly toned. Yang stood there for a minute, still comprehending the situation, until she got ahold of herself, and reacted very differently from Akiya. Dusty moved out of the way as Yang squealed and unleashed a flurry of punches at him. He got out of the dorm, and closed the door, letting Yang quickly get into her pajamas. After a minute, Yang (who was slightly less put off than Akiya) opened the door, and beckoned Dusty in.

"So, how'd it go, Casanova?"

"Goals achieved. Lives saved, you know the drill."

Yang breathed a relieved sigh, her life saved.

"So, does she still hate me?"

"That I don't know. But, I'll ask tomorrow if you want me to."

"You do that. In the mean time, have fun."

"Oh, trust me, I will."

End of

Chapter 17


End file.
